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Functional Localization Of The Frontal Eye Fields In The Common Marmoset Using Microstimulation, Janahan Selvanayagam, Kevin D. Johnston, David J. Schaeffer, Lauren K. Hayrynen, Stefan Everling

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Copyright © 2019 the authors. The frontal eye field (FEF) is a critical region for the deployment of overt and covert spatial attention. Although investigations in the macaque continue to provide insight into the neural underpinnings of the FEF, due to its location within a sulcus, the macaque FEF is virtually inaccessible to electrophysiological techniques such as high-density and laminar recordings. With a largely lissencephalic cortex, the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is a promising alternative primate model for studying FEF microcircuitry. Putative homologies have been established with the macaque FEF on the basis of cytoarchitecture and connectivity; however, physiological investigation …

A Sound-Sensitive Source Of Alpha Oscillations In Human Non-Primary Auditory Cortex, Alexander J. Billig, Björn Herrmann, Ariane E. Rhone, Phillip E. Gander, Kirill V. Nourski, Beau F. Snoad, Christopher K. Kovach, Hiroto Kawasaki, Matthew A. Howard, Ingrid S. Johnsrude

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Copyright © 2019 Billig, Herrmann et al. The functional organization of human auditory cortex can be probed by characterizing responses to various classes of sound at different anatomical locations. Along with histological studies this approach has revealed a primary field in posteromedial Heschl's gyrus (HG) with pronounced induced high-frequency (70-150 Hz) activity and short-latency responses that phase-lock to rapid transient sounds. Low-frequency neural oscillations are also relevant to stimulus processing and information flow, however, their distribution within auditory cortex has not been established. Alpha activity (7-14 Hz) in particular has been associated with processes that may differentially engage earlier versus …

A Framework For Evaluating Correspondence Between Brain Images Using Anatomical Fiducials., Jonathan C Lau, Andrew G Parrent, John Demarco, Geetika Gupta, Jason Kai, Olivia W Stanley, Tristan Kuehn, Patrick J Park, Kayla Ferko, Ali R Khan, Terry M Peters

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Accurate spatial correspondence between template and subject images is a crucial step in neuroimaging studies and clinical applications like stereotactic neurosurgery. In the absence of a robust quantitative approach, we sought to propose and validate a set of point landmarks, anatomical fiducials (AFIDs), that could be quickly, accurately, and reliably placed on magnetic resonance images of the human brain. Using several publicly available brain templates and individual participant datasets, novice users could be trained to place a set of 32 AFIDs with millimetric accuracy. Furthermore, the utility of the AFIDs protocol is demonstrated for evaluating subject-to-template and template-to-template registration. Specifically, …

Comorbid Metabolic Syndrome And Prodromal Alzheimer's Disease In A Rat Model, Nadezda Ivanova

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Metabolic syndrome (MetS), the development of which is associated with high-caloric Western diet intake, represents a risk factor for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and appears to contribute to AD progression when MetS and AD are comorbid. The interaction between AD and MetS might be through white matter inflammation, since white matter abnormalities and inflammation are important early events in the etiopathogenesis of both diseases. In these investigations, the effect of a high-caloric diet (HCD), to induce metabolic disturbances, on white matter neuroinflammation and cognitive function was investigated in a transgenic (TG) rat model of prodromal AD …

Binding During Sequence Learning Does Not Alter Cortical Representations Of Individual Actions, Patrick Beukema, Jörn Diedrichsen, Timothy D. Verstynen

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Copyright © 2019 the authors. As a sequence of movements is learned, serially ordered actions get bound together into sets to reduce computational complexity during planning and execution. Here, we investigated how actions become naturally bound over the course of learning and how this learning affects cortical representations of individual actions. Across 5 weeks of practice, neurologically healthy human subjects learned either a complex 32-item sequence of finger movements (trained group, n = 9; 3 female) or randomly ordered actions (control group, n = 9; 3 female). Over the course of practice, responses during sequence production in the trained group …

Neurodevelopmental Outcomes Of Infantile Hydrocephalus: An Fmri Case Study, Ikhlas Ahmed Hashi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Ventricle dilatation caused by infantile hydrocephalus may result in extensive damage of the posterior cortex (parietal and occipital lobes). We hypothesize that pathological changes in the development of the posterior cortex can be linked to non-verbal learning disabilities in children with previous infantile hydrocephalus. This case study will investigate the neurodevelopmental outcomes of 3 treated hydrocephalus patients, when compared to a group of healthy control children (n = 12). Within the hydrocephalus group, patients displayed differences in non-verbal test performance as well as parietal brain activation during an fMRI number comparison task. We associated these differences with clinical variables such …

Glucocorticoids And “Stress” Are Not Synonymous, Scott Macdougall-Shackleton

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Synopsis

Reference to glucocorticoids as “stress hormones” has been growing in prevalence in the literature, including in comparative and environmental endocrinology. Although glucocorticoids are elevated in response to a variety of stressors in vertebrate animals, the primary functions of glucocorticoids are not responding to stressors and they are only one component of complex suite of physiological and behavioral responses to stressors. Thus, the use of the short-hand phrase “stress hormone” can be misleading. Further, simply measuring glucocorticoids is not equivalent to measuring a stress response, nor is manipulating glucocorticoids equivalent to exposing an animal to a stressor. In this commentary …

Understanding The Neural Bases Of Implicit And Statistical Learning, Laura J. Batterink, Ken A. Paller, Paul J. Reber

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2019 Cognitive Science Society, Inc. Both implicit learning and statistical learning focus on the ability of learners to pick up on patterns in the environment. It has been suggested that these two lines of research may be combined into a single construct of “implicit statistical learning.” However, by comparing the neural processes that give rise to implicit versus statistical learning, we may determine the extent to which these two learning paradigms do indeed describe the same core mechanisms. In this review, we describe current knowledge about neural mechanisms underlying both implicit learning and statistical learning, highlighting converging findings between …

Resonate: Reflections And Recommendations On Implicit Biases Within The Ismrm, Esther A.H. Warnert, Krishna Nayak, Ravi Menon, Curt Rice, John Port, Elizabeth A. Morris, Daniel K. Sodickson, Pia Sundgren, Karla L. Miller, Udunna C. Anazodo

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

No abstract provided.

The Search For Consciousness, Adrian Owen

BrainsCAN Publications

In recent years, rapid technological developments in the field of neuroimaging have provided new methods for assessing residual cognition, detecting consciousness, and even communicating with patients who clinically appear to be in a vegetative state. Here, I highlight some of the major implications of these developments, discuss their scientific, clinical, legal, and ethical relevance, and make my own recommendations for future directions in this field.

Simple Random-Interval Generation Reveals The Irresistibly Periodic Structure Of Perceived Time, Jessica A. Grahn, J. Eric Taylor

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Whole-integer ratios in musical rhythm are culturally universal. The reliable periodicity of rhythm inspired us to determine whether time perception, which is foundational to and inherently less structured than rhythm, is subject to similar biases. We created a random-interval generation task that exploits the nonrandom tendencies in perception and action in order to uncover the structural biases underlying temporal duration perception. Participants listened to and watched an audiovisual suprasecond temporal cue and were asked to subdivide it as randomly as possible in a prescribed number of responses. The results showed that the subdivision probability distributions were distinctly nonrandom, and closely …

A Consensus Guide To Capturing The Ability To Inhibit Actions And Impulsive Behaviors In The Stop-Signal Task., Frederick Verbruggen, Adam R Aron, Guido Ph Band, Christian Beste, Patrick G Bissett, Adam T Brockett, Joshua W Brown, Samuel R Chamberlain, Christopher D Chambers, Hans Colonius, Lorenza S Colzato, Brian D Corneil, James P Coxon, Annie Dupuis, Dawn M Eagle, Hugh Garavan, Ian Greenhouse, Andrew Heathcote, René J Huster, Sara Jahfari, J Leon Kenemans, Inge Leunissen, Chiang-Shan R Li, Gordon D Logan, Dora Matzke, Sharon Morein-Zamir, Aditya Murthy, Martin Paré, Russell A Poldrack, K Richard Ridderinkhof, Trevor W Robbins, Matthew Roesch, Katya Rubia, Russell J Schachar, Jeffrey D Schall, Ann-Kathrin Stock, Nicole C Swann, Katharine N Thakkar, Maurits W Van Der Molen, Luc Vermeylen, Matthijs Vink, Jan R Wessel, Robert Whelan, Bram B Zandbelt, C Nico Boehler

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Response inhibition is essential for navigating everyday life. Its derailment is considered integral to numerous neurological and psychiatric disorders, and more generally, to a wide range of behavioral and health problems. Response-inhibition efficiency furthermore correlates with treatment outcome in some of these conditions. The stop-signal task is an essential tool to determine how quickly response inhibition is implemented. Despite its apparent simplicity, there are many features (ranging from task design to data analysis) that vary across studies in ways that can easily compromise the validity of the obtained results. Our goal is to facilitate a more accurate use of the …

Assessment Of Mglur5 Ko Mice Under Conditions Of Low Stress Using A Rodent Touchscreen Apparatus Reveals Impaired Behavioural Flexibility Driven By Perseverative Responses, Jisoo Lim, Eosu Kim, Hyun Jong Noh, Shinwon Kang, Benjamin U. Phillips, Dong Goo Kim, Timothy J. Bussey, Lisa Saksida, Christopher J. Heath, Chul Hoon Kim

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2019 The Author(s). Genetic and pharmacological manipulations targeting metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) affect performance in behavioural paradigms that depend on cognitive flexibility. Many of these studies involved exposing mice to highly stressful conditions including electric foot shocks or water immersion and forced swimming. Because mGluR5 is also implicated in resilience and stress responses, however, apparent impairments in inhibitory learning may have been an artifact of manipulation-induced changes in affective state. To address this, we present here a characterization of cognitive flexibility in mGluR5 knockout (KO) mice conducted with a rodent touchscreen cognitive assessment apparatus in which the animals …

Annual Research Review: Educational Neuroscience: Progress And Prospects, Michael S.C. Thomas, Daniel Ansari, Victoria C.P. Knowland

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2018 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Educational neuroscience is an interdisciplinary research field that seeks to translate research findings on neural mechanisms of learning to educational practice and policy and to understand the effects of education on the brain. Neuroscience and education can interact directly, by virtue of considering the brain as a biological organ that needs to be in the optimal condition to learn (‘brain health’); or indirectly, as neuroscience shapes psychological theory and psychology influences education. In …

A Consensus Guide To Capturing The Ability To Inhibit Actions And Impulsive Behaviors In The Stop-Signal Task, Frederick Verbruggen, Adam R. Aron, Guido P.H. Band, Christian Beste, Patrick G. Bissett, Adam T. Brockett, Joshua W. Brown, Samuel R. Chamberlain, Christopher D. Chambers, Hans Colonius, Lorenza S. Colzato, Brian D. Corneil, James P. Coxon, Annie Dupuis, Dawn M. Eagle, Hugh Garavan, Ian Greenhouse, Andrew Heathcote, Rene´ J. Huster, Sara Jahfari, J. Leon Kenemans, Inge Leunissen, Chiang Shan R. Li, Gordon D. Logan, Dora Matzke, Sharon Morein-Zamir, Aditya Murthy, Martin Paré, Russell A. Poldrack, K. Richard Ridderinkhof, Trevor W. Robbins, Matthew Roesch

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© Verbruggen et al. Response inhibition is essential for navigating everyday life. Its derailment is considered integral to numerous neurological and psychiatric disorders, and more generally, to a wide range of behavioral and health problems. Response-inhibition efficiency furthermore correlates with treatment outcome in some of these conditions. The stop-signal task is an essential tool to determine how quickly response inhibition is implemented. Despite its apparent simplicity, there are many features (ranging from task design to data analysis) that vary across studies in ways that can easily compromise the validity of the obtained results. Our goal is to facilitate a more …

Neural Correlates Of Enhanced Attentional Filtering Of Distractors Across Vs. Within Visual Hemifields In The Lateral Prefrontal Cortex, Maryam Nouri Kadijani

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Attention allows us to focus on only important sensory stimuli in a world full of distractors. However, the ability to allocate attention to important targets becomes more difficult when the distractors are located within the same as compared to when they are in the opposite visual hemifield. The neural mechanisms underlying this effect remains unclear. We recorded neuronal responses in lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), an area involved in the generation of signals related to attention, of two macaque monkeys while they performed a covert spatial attention task in two different conditions. Two stimuli were either separate in the left and …

Moderating Effect Of Cortical Thickness On Bold Signal Variability Age-Related Changes, Daiana R. Pur, Roy A. Eagleson, Anik De Ribaupierre, Nathalie Mella, Sandrine De Ribaupierre

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© Copyright © 2019 Pur, Eagleson, de Ribaupierre, Mella and de Ribaupierre. The time course of neuroanatomical structural and functional measures across the lifespan is commonly reported in association with aging. Blood oxygen-level dependent signal variability, estimated using the standard deviation of the signal, or “BOLDSD,” is an emerging metric of variability in neural processing, and has been shown to be positively correlated with cognitive flexibility. Generally, BOLDSD is reported to decrease with aging, and is thought to reflect age-related cognitive decline. Additionally, it is well established that normative aging is associated with structural changes in brain regions, and that …

The Material-Weight Illusion Disappears Or Inverts In Objects Made Of Two Materials, Vivian C. Paulun, Gavin Buckingham, Melvyn A. Goodale, Roland W. Fleming

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© the American Physiological Society. The material-weight illusion disappears or inverts in objects made of two materials. J Neurophysiol 121: 996 –1010, 2019. First published January 23, 2019; doi:10.1152/jn.00199.2018.—The material-weight illusion (MWI) occurs when an object that looks heavy (e.g., stone) and one that looks light (e.g., Styrofoam) have the same mass. When such stimuli are lifted, the heavier-looking object feels lighter than the lighter-looking object, presumably because well-learned priors about the density of different materials are violated. We examined whether a similar illusion occurs when a certain weight distribution is expected (such as the metal end of a hammer …

The Gradient Of The Reinforcement Landscape Influences Sensorimotor Learning, Joshua G.A. Cashaback, Christopher K. Lao, Dimitrios J. Palidis, Susan K. Coltman, Heather R. Mcgregor, Paul L. Gribble

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2019 Cashaback et al. Consideration of previous successes and failures is essential to mastering a motor skill. Much of what we know about how humans and animals learn from such reinforcement feedback comes from experiments that involve sampling from a small number of discrete actions. Yet, it is less understood how we learn through reinforcement feedback when sampling from a continuous set of possible actions. Navigating a continuous set of possible actions likely requires using gradient information to maximize success. Here we addressed how humans adapt the aim of their hand when experiencing reinforcement feedback that was associated with …

Understanding Perirhinal Contributions To Perception And Memory: Evidence Through The Lens Of Selective Perirhinal Damage, Marika C. Inhoff, Andrew C. Heusser, Arielle Tambini, Chris B. Martin, Edward B. O'Neil, Stefan Köhler, Michael R. Meager, Karen Blackmon, Blanca Vazquez, Orrin Devinsky, Lila Davachi

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Although a memory systems view of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) has been widely influential in understanding how memory processes are implemented, a large body of work across humans and animals has converged on the idea that the MTL can support various other decisions, beyond those involving memory. Specifically, recent work suggests that perception of and memory for visual representations may interact in order to support ongoing cognition. However, given considerations involving lesion profiles in neuropsychological investigations and the correlational nature of fMRI, the precise nature of representations supported by the MTL are not well understood …

Intrinsic Functional Boundaries Of Lateral Frontal Cortex In The Common Marmoset Monkey, David J. Schaeffer, Kyle M. Gilbert, Joseph S. Gati, Ravi S. Menon, Stefan Everling

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2019 the authors. The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is a small New World primate species that has been recently targeted as a potentially powerful preclinical model of human prefrontal cortex dysfunction. Although the structural boundaries of frontal cortex were described in marmosets at the start of the 20th century (Brodmann, 1909) and refined more recently (Paxinos et al., 2012), the broad functional boundaries of marmoset frontal cortex have yet to be established. In this study, we sought to functionally derive boundaries of the marmoset lateral frontal cortex (LFC) using ultra-high field (9.4 T) resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI). …

Human Consciousness Is Supported By Dynamic Complex Patterns Of Brain Signal Coordination, A. Demertzi, E. Tagliazucchi, S. Dehaene, G. Deco, P. Barttfeld, F. Raimondo, C. Martial, D. Fernández-Espejo, B. Rohaut, H. U. Voss, N. D. Schiff, A. M. Owen, S. Laureys, L. Naccache, J. D. Sitt

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Adopting the framework of brain dynamics as a cornerstone of human consciousness, we determined whether dynamic signal coordination provides specific and generalizable patterns pertaining to conscious and unconscious states after brain damage. A dynamic pattern of coordinated and anticoordinated functional magnetic resonance imaging signals characterized healthy individuals and minimally conscious patients. The brains of unresponsive patients showed primarily a pattern of low interareal phase coherence mainly mediated by structural connectivity, and had smaller chances to transition between patterns. The complex pattern was further corroborated in patients with covert cognition, who could perform neuroimaging mental imagery tasks, validating this pattern’s implication …

Obtaining And Maintaining Cortical Hand Representation As Evidenced From Acquired And Congenital Handlessness, Daan B. Wesselink, Fiona Mz Van Den Heiligenberg, Naveed Ejaz, Harriet Dempsey-Jones, Lucilla Cardinali, Aurelie Tarall-Jozwiak, Jörn Diedrichsen, Tamar R. Makin

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© Lukinova et al. A key question in neuroscience is how cortical organisation relates to experience. Previously we showed that amputees experiencing highly vivid phantom sensations maintain cortical representation of their missing hand (Kikkert et al., 2016). Here, we examined the role of sensory hand experience on persistent hand representation by studying individuals with acquired and congenital hand loss. We used representational similarity analysis in primary somatosensory and motor cortex during missing and intact hand movements. We found that key aspects of acquired amputees’ missing hand representation persisted, despite varying vividness of phantom sensations. In contrast, missing hand representation of …

A Touchscreen Motivation Assessment Evaluated In Huntington's Disease Patients And R6/1 Model Mice, Christopher J. Heath, Claire O'Callaghan, Sarah L. Mason, Benjamin U. Phillips, Lisa M. Saksida, Trevor W. Robbins, Roger A. Barker, Timothy J. Bussey, Barbara J. Sahakian

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Copyright © 2019 Heath, O'Callaghan, Mason, Phillips, Saksida, Robbins, Barker, Bussey and Sahakian. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Apathy is pervasive across many neuropsychiatric disorders but is poorly characterized mechanistically, so targeted therapeutic interventions remain elusive. A key …

Brain Activation Time-Locked To Sleep Spindles Associated With Human Cognitive Abilities, Zhuo Fang, Laura B. Ray, Adrian M. Owen, Stuart M. Fogel

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Simultaneous electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging (EEG-fMRI) studies have revealed brain activations time-locked to spindles. Yet, the functional significance of these spindle-related brain activations is not understood. EEG studies have shown that inter-individual differences in the electrophysiological characteristics of spindles (e.g., density, amplitude, duration) are highly correlated with "Reasoning" abilities (i.e., "fluid intelligence"; problem solving skills, the ability to employ logic, identify complex patterns), but not short-term memory (STM) or verbal abilities. Spindle-dependent reactivation of brain areas recruited during new learning suggests night-to-night variations reflect offline memory processing. However, the functional significance of stable, trait-like inter-individual differences in brain …

Alive Inside, Andrew Peterson, Adrian M. Owen, Jason Karlawish

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

This article provides an ethical analysis of the U.S. practice guideline update on disorders of consciousness. Our analysis focuses on the guideline’s recommendations regarding the use of investigational neuroimaging methods to assess brain-injured patients. Complex and multifaceted ethical issues have emerged because these methods alter the clinical understanding of consciousness. We address issues of false hope, patient suffering, and cost. We argue that, in spite of these concerns, there is significant benefit to using neuroimaging to assess brain-injured patients in most cases.

Investigating The Visual Number Form Area: A Replication Study, Rebecca Merkley, Benjamin Conrad, Gavin Price, Daniel Ansari

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2019 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society The influential triple-code model of number representation proposed that there are three distinct brain regions for three different numerical representations: verbal words, visual digits and abstract magnitudes. It was hypothesized that the region for visual digits, known as the number form area, would be in ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOTC), near other visual category-specific regions, such as the visual word form area. However, neuroimaging investigations searching for a region that responds in a category-specific manner to the visual presentation of number symbols have yielded inconsistent results. Price & Ansari (Price, Ansari 2011 …