Activity In Frontal Cortex Research Articles

Automated task training and longitudinal monitoring of mouse mesoscale cortical circuits using home cages.

We report improved automated open-source methodology for head-fixed mesoscale cortical imaging and/or behavioral training of home cage mice using Raspberry Pi-based hardware. Staged partial and probabilistic restraint allows mice to adjust to self-initiated headfixation over 3 weeks' time with ~50% participation rate. We support a cue-based behavioral licking task monitored by a capacitive touch-sensor water spout. While automatically head-fixed, we acquire spontaneous, movement-triggered, or licking task-evoked GCaMP6 cortical signals. An analysis pipeline marked both behavioral events, as well as analyzed brain fluorescence signals as they relate to spontaneous and/or task-evoked behavioral activity. Mice were trained to suppress licking and wait for cues that marked the delivery of water. Correct rewarded go-trials were associated with widespread activation of midline and lateral barrel cortex areas following a vibration cue and delayed frontal and lateral motor cortex activation. Cortical GCaMP signals predicted trial success and correlated strongly with trial-outcome dependent body movements.

What a cute baby! Preliminary evidence from a fMRI study for the association between mothers’ neural responses to infant faces and activation of the parental care system

Infant facial characteristics, i.e., baby schema, are thought to automatically elicit parenting behavior and affective orientation toward infants. Only a few studies, conducted in non-parents, have directly examined the neural underpinnings of this baby schema effect by manipulating distinctiveness of baby schema in infant faces. This study aims to further our understanding of the intuitive nature of parenting, by studying the baby schema effect in mothers of young children (at least one child aged between 2 and 6 years old). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine mothers’ (N = 23) neural responses to unfamiliar infant faces varying in distinctiveness of baby schema. Also, it was studied how this neural activation to infant faces was associated with maternal nurturance. Results revealed that infant faces elicited widespread activation in bilateral visual cortices, the hippocampus, sensory-motor areas, parietal and frontal cortices, and the insula, which was not modulated by the distinctiveness of baby schema in the infant faces. Furthermore, higher self-reported maternal nurturance was related to increased neural responses to infant faces in the putamen and amygdala, brain regions known to be associated with reward and salience processing. These findings could suggest that in our small sample of mothers some of the core networks involved in reward and salience processing might be less sensitive to variation in distinctiveness of baby schema. Also, unfamiliar infant faces seem to be rewarding only for mothers who report high nurturance. These findings should be considered preliminary, because they need to be replicated in studies with larger samples.

Masking effects on subjective annoyance to aircraft flyover noise: An fMRI study.

Sound masking, a new noise control technology, has been applied to improve subjective perception of noise in recent years. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this technology are still unclear. In this study, 18 healthy subjects were recurited to take subjective annoyance assessments and fMRI scanning with the aircraft noise and the masked aircraft noise. The results showed that the noise annoyance was associated with deficient functional connectivity between anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and prefrontal cortex and exceeded brain activation in ACC, which might be explained as compensation. The sound masking led to significantly strong activation in the left medial frontal cortex and right medial orbital frontal cortex, which were associated with happy emotion induced by sound masking. This study offered new insights on the underlying neural mechanisms of sound masking effects.

Electrocortical brain oscillations and social anxiety disorder: a pilot study of frontal alpha asymmetry and delta-beta correlation

The main objective of the present study is to investigate whether socially anxious individuals and healthy control show recognizable electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns in the frontal brain during baseline and recovery states. Towards this goal, this study recruited eight participants to examine the severity of social anxiety disorder (SAD) on EEG oscillations through the study of electrocortical frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) and delta–beta correlation. A group of healthy male participants was chosen (consisting of 4 SAD and 4 HC individuals), and they were assessed by using Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) to determine the level of social anxiety. Frontal EEG oscillations were measured to investigate the delta-beta correlation and frontal alpha asymmetry in baseline tasks (eyes opened and eyes closed) and recovery from social tasks (speaking in front of camera). As an outcome, Delta-beta coupling in SAD has shown greater correlation in baseline condition (eyes closed, and eyes open) than the recovery task, unlike HC individuals who exhibited greater correlation in recovery state more than baseline state. For frontal alpha asymmetry, SDA participant have shown greater left frontal cortical activity, whereas HC participants have demonstrated greater right frontal cortical activity. Taking all together, the reported findings indicate that delta-beta correlation and alpha asymmetry are presumptive EEG biomarkers of social anxiety.

The influence of maternal anxiety and depression symptoms on fNIRS brain responses to emotional faces in 5- and 7-month-old infants

Greater relative right (versus left) frontal cortical activation to emotional faces as measured with alpha power in the electroencephalogram (EEG), has been considered a promising neural marker of increased vulnerability to psychopathology and emotional disorders. We set out to explore multichannel fNIRS as a tool to investigate infants’ frontal asymmetry responses (hypothesizing greater right versus left frontal cortex activation) to emotional faces as influenced by maternal anxiety and depression symptoms during the postnatal period. We also explored activation differences in fronto-temporal regions associated with facial emotion processing. Ninety-one typically developing 5- and 7-month-old infants were shown photographs of women portraying happy, fearful and angry expressions. Hemodynamic brain responses were analyzed over two frontopolar and seven bilateral cortical regions subdivided into frontal, temporal and parietal areas, defined by age-appropriate MRI templates. Infants of mothers reporting higher negative affect had greater oxyhemoglobin (oxyHb) activation across all emotions over the left inferior frontal gyrus, a region implicated in emotional communication. Follow-up analyses indicated that associations were driven by maternal depression, but not anxiety symptoms. Overall, we found no support for greater right versus left frontal cortex activation in association with maternal negative affect. Findings point to the potential utility of fNIRS as a method for identifying altered neural substrates associated with exposure to maternal depression in infancy.

Phenomenology of glioma resection in the dorsal medial frontal cortex.

During the latest decades, the hypothesis that the subjective experience of free will is determined by preconscious activity in the dominant dorsal medial frontal cortex (dMFC) has repeatedly challenged our commonly held concepts of moral responsibility. To investigate whether dMFC activity determines the sense of free will and to investigate the effects of resections in this area on quality of life (QoL). A cohort of nine patients affected by transient declines in speech and movement skills after surgery involving the left dMFC answered questions about their post-operative, subjective experiences of volition in relation to symptoms. In eight cases, resections were performed as part of glioma surgery, and in the ninth case, a meningioma adjacent to the dMFC was resected. In addition, a QoL questionnaire was administrated before and after surgery. None of the patients perceived the transient disabilities related to surgery as associated with a loss or absence of volition. No declines in QoL were detected after surgery. Two QoL domains showed improved function (motor dysfunction and future uncertainty). The subjective sense of volition is not contingent on dMFC activity. Surgical resections of this area are not typically associated with declines in QoL.

Acute and long-term effects of electroacupuncture alter frontal and insular cortex activity and functional connectivity during resting state

Electroacupuncture (EA) is a safe method for treating obesity; however, its underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. We employed resting-state-functional-magnetic-resonance-imaging (RS-fMRI) and amplitude-of-low-frequency-fluctuation (ALFF) to investigate acute/long-term effects of EA on brain activity and resting-state-functional-connectivity (RSFC) in overweight/obesity subjects who received real/Sham stimulation. For acute effects, 26 and 19 overweight/obesity subjects were included in EA and Sham groups respectively. There were significant time effects on ALFF in the right insula (INS) and left dorsolateral-prefrontal-cortex (DLPFC) due to decreases/increases in INS/DLPFC in both groups. There were weaker positive RSFC between INS and supplementary-motor-area (SMA)/right DLPFC and weaker negative RSFC between INS and precuneus (PCUN); stronger negative RSFC between DLPFC and dorsomedial-prefrontal-cortex (DMPFC) in both groups. For long-term study, body-mass-index (BMI) had significant reduction in EA (n = 17) and Sham (15) groups; EA had higher BMI reduction than in Sham. There were significant time effects on ALFF in right ventrolateral-prefrontal-cortex (VLPFC) due to significant increases in EA group, and stronger positive RSFC between VLPFC and orbitofrontal-cortex and negative RSFC between VLPFC and left thalamus (THA) in both groups after long-term treatment. These findings suggest that changes in resting-activity and RSFC implicated in inhibitory-control, gastric-motility and satiety-control are associated with EA-induced weight-loss.

Resting state frontal alpha asymmetry predicts emotion regulation difficulties in impulse control

Failure in emotion regulation would cause barriers to individuals’ adaptive behavior, which negatively affect a human's happy and healthy life. Recent studies indicate that decreased activity of the left frontal cortex can be treated as a neural marker of emotion disorders. The present study examined how resting state frontal alpha asymmetry could predict emotion regulation difficulties and related dimensions by resting state electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings, and a measure of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Eighty participants completed the resting state EEG recording and DERS ratings. Results revealed that after controlling for gender and depression scores, those participants with higher left frontal activity than the right frontal activity in the resting state have less difficulties in everyday emotion regulation, especially in the dimension of impulse control. However, there was no relation pattern with other dimensions of DERS. This study provided evidence that resting state frontal alpha asymmetry could predict emotion regulation difficulties, mainly in impulse control.

Elements of creative thought: Investigating the cognitive and neural correlates of association and bi-association processes

Creative thinking relies on the ability to make remote associations and fruitfully combine unrelated concepts. Hence, original associations and bi-associations (i.e., associations to one and two concepts, respectively) are considered elementary cognitive processes of creative cognition. In this work, we investigated the cognitive and brain mechanisms underlying these association processes with tasks that asked for original associations to either one or two adjective stimuli. Study 1 showed that the generation of more original associations and bi-associations was related to several indicators of creativity, corroborating the validity of these association performances as basic processes underlying creative cognition. Study 2 assessed brain activity during performance of these association tasks by means of fMRI. The generation of original versus common associations was related to higher activation in bilateral lingual gyri suggesting that cued search for remote representatives of given properties are supported by visually-mediated search strategies. Parametric analyses further showed that the generation of more original associations involved activation of the left inferior frontal cortex and the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which are consistently implicated in constrained retrieval and evaluation processes, and relevant for making distant semantic connections. Finally, the generation of original bi-associations involved higher activation in bilateral hippocampus and inferior parietal lobe, indicating that conceptual combination recruits episodic simulation processes. Together, these findings suggest that the generation of verbally cued, original associations relies not only on verbal semantic memory but involves mental imagery and episodic simulation, offering new insights in the nuanced interplay of memory systems in creative thought.

The neural interface between negative emotion regulation and motivation for change in cocaine dependent individuals under treatment

BackgroundEmotion regulation is important for cocaine addiction treatment success, particularly during early abstinence. In addition, the neural underpinnings of emotion processing overlap with those of motivation and goal-directed behavior. We examined if the neural underpinnings of emotion maintenance and its regulation correlate with cocaine treatment motivation. MethodsForty-five cocaine dependent individuals (CDIs) starting outpatient treatment in a public specialized addiction treatment clinic in Granada (Spain) underwent fMRI scans while performing a Reappraisal task, and completed the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment Scale (URICA), to measure treatment motivation. We conducted correlation analyses to examine the association between emotion maintenance and regulation related brain activation and URICA’s Readiness to Change scores. We also explored links between Emotional reports during the fMRI reappraisal task, duration of abstinence, and anxiety and depression symptoms. ResultsReadiness to Change scores were positively correlated with activations in the right dorsolateral prefrontal and right parietal cortices, the midbrain (p ≤ 0.001, cluster extents ≥109 voxels), and basolateral amygdala (PFWE-SVC<0.05), while negatively with emotion maintenance related activation in the same cortical areas and activations in the dorsomedial frontal cortex, the nucleus accumbens and the left fusiform gyrus. Emotional reactivity negatively correlated with right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex reappraisal related activation (r= -0.40, p = 0.007), and the Regulate score positively correlated with the left fusiform gyrus emotion maintenance related activation (r = 0.31, p = 0.04). ConclusionsEmotional related activation in frontoparietal, accumbens, fusiform, amygdala and midbrain regions engaged during emotion regulation and its maintenance correlate with early treatment motivation in CDIs.

Resting-state brain activity predicts selective attention deficits during hyperthermia exposure

Purpose Environmental hyperthermia exerts detrimental effect on attention performance that might increase the probability of accidents for high risk occupation. Previously, we reported aberrant activations and selective attention deficits under task performing during hyperthermia. However, whether resting-state baseline during hyperthermia would contribute to the reported selective attention deficits remains unclear. Materials and methods Here, we investigated the resting-state activity within two attention subsystems named dorsal attention network (DAN) and ventral attention network (VAN) using the conjoint analysis of functional connectivity (FC) and regional cerebral blood flow (CBF). Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) and 3 D arterial spin labeling data were obtained from 25 healthy male participants under two simulated thermal conditions: normothermic (25 °C for 1 h) and hyperthermic condition (50 °C for 1 h). Results Paired comparisons on the FC and CBF showed decreased activity in the bilateral frontal eye field (FEF) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS) in the DAN but increased activity in the ventral frontal cortex (VFC) in the VAN. The CBF-FC correlation analysis further confirmed decreased CBF-FC coupling in the bilateral FEF in the DAN and increased coupling in the VFC in the VAN. Additionally, the left IPS and FEF in the DAN showed altered CBF per unit functional connectivity in the CBF/FC ratio analysis. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the selectively altered performances were predicted by alterations of the multiple metrics within the DAN and VAN. Conclusions These findings suggested that altered resting-state brain activity within the attention networks might provide potential neural basis of the selective deficits for different cognitive-demand attention tasks under hyperthermia.

Beneficial Effects of Yoga on Memory and Cognition Associated to Stress

Stress generally occurs due to the organism’s non-specific response against some kind of demand imposed on them. The compensatory responses to these stresses are known as stress response. The stressful stimuli can advance the physiological and psychological effects on the body which includes executive functions of the brain. The prefrontal cortex shows an important connection between the circuits that are linked with emotions, memory and planning. Due to this activation of stressful condition or situation damage occurs in the prefrontal cortex because of the catecholaminergic nature of its innervating afferents in the other parts of the brain. Along with hippocampus, the amygdala and prefrontal cortex define the aspects of memory and visual processing within brain. The decrease in PNS and GABAergic activity that causes stress related disorders can be corrected by yoga practice resulting in amelioration of disease system in the brain such as reduction in anxiety and improvement in cognitive function. Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that are elevated by stress shows low heart rate variability (HRV) and GABAergic activity which can be improved in response to yoga based interventions. Yoga practices show increase in the proportion of gray matter and escalation in activation of amygdala and frontal cortex of the brain. It was concluded that breathing, meditation and posture based yoga increased overall brain function and activity.

Obesity is associated with reduced orbitofrontal cortex volume: A coordinate-based meta-analysis

Neural models of obesity vary in their focus upon prefrontal and striatal differences. Animal and human studies suggest that differential functioning of the orbitofrontal cortex is associated with obesity. However, meta-analyses of functional neuroimaging studies have not found a clear relationship between the orbitofrontal cortex and obesity. Meta-analyses of structural imaging studies of obesity have shown mixed findings with regards to an association with reduced orbitofrontal cortex gray matter volume. To clarify these findings, we conducted a meta-analysis of 25 voxel-based morphometry studies, and found that greater body mass index is associated with decreased gray matter volume in the right orbitofrontal cortex (Brodmanns’ areas 10 and 11), where family-wise corrected p < .05, N = 7,612. Use of the right orbitofrontal cortex as a seed in a Neurosynth Network Coactivation analysis showed that this region is associated with activity in the left frontal medial cortex, left temporal lobe, right precuneus cortex, posterior division of the left middle temporal gyrus, and right frontal pole. When Neurosynth Network Coactivation results were submitted as regions of interest in the Human Connectome Project data, we found that greater body mass index was associated with greater activity in left frontal medial cortex response to the Gambling Task, where p < .05, although this did not survive Bonferroni-correction. Our findings highlight the importance of the orbitofrontal cortex structure and functioning in neural models of obesity. Exploratory analyses suggest more studies are needed that examine the functional significance of reduced orbitofrontal cortex gray matter volume in obesity, and the effect of age and weight changes on this relationship using longitudinal designs.

Neurofunctional Differences Related to Methamphetamine and Sexual Cues in Men With Shorter and Longer Term Abstinence Methamphetamine Dependence

BackgroundStimulant use and sexual behaviors have been linked in behavioral and epidemiological studies. Although methamphetamine-related neurofunctional differences have been investigated, few studies have examined neural responses to drug and sexual cues with respect to shorter or longer term methamphetamine abstinence in individuals with methamphetamine dependence.MethodsForty-nine men with shorter term methamphetamine abstinence, 50 men with longer term methamphetamine abstinence, and 47 non–drug-using healthy comparison men completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging cue-reactivity task consisting of methamphetamine, sexual, and neutral visual cues.ResultsRegion-of-interest analyses revealed greater methamphetamine cue–related activation in shorter term methamphetamine abstinence and longer term methamphetamine abstinence individuals relative to healthy comparison men in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. A significant interaction of group and condition in the anterior insula was found. Relative to healthy comparison participants, both shorter term methamphetamine abstinence and longer term methamphetamine abstinence groups displayed greater sexual cue–related anterior insula activation relative to methamphetamine cues and neutral cues, but there were no differences between shorter term methamphetamine abstinence and longer term methamphetamine abstinence groups in anterior insula responses. Subsequent whole-brain analyses indicated a group-by-condition interaction with longer term methamphetamine abstinence participants showing greater sexual-related activation in the left superior frontal cortex relative to healthy comparison men. Shorter term methamphetamine abstinence participants showed greater superior frontal cortex activation to sexual relative to neutral cues, and longer term methamphetamine abstinence participants showed greater superior frontal cortex activation to sexual relative to neutral and methamphetamine cues.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that abstinence from methamphetamine may alter how individuals respond to drug and sexual cues and thus may influence drug use and sexual behaviors. Given the use of methamphetamine for sexual purposes and responses to natural vs drug rewards for addiction recovery, the findings may have particular clinical relevance.

Kleeb Bua Daeng, a Thai Traditional Herbal Formula, Ameliorated Unpredictable Chronic Mild Stress-Induced Cognitive Impairment in ICR Mice.

Thai traditional herbal formula ‘’Kleeb Bua Daeng (KBD)’’consists of a 1:1:1 ratio (dry weight) of three medicinal plants: Piper nigrum fruit, the aerial part of Centella asiatica and the petals of Nelumbo nucifera. Oral administration of KBD to unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS) mice significantly improved their cognitive function caused by chronic mild stress. Daily administration of KBD significantly decreased the serum corticosterone (CORT) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels but increased the catalase and superoxide dismutase activities in both frontal cortex and hippocampus. The effects of KBD were similar to those caused by oral administration of vitamin E. HPLC analysis of the KBD extract revealed the presence of piperine, madecassoside, asiaticoside, luteolin-7-O-glucoside, rutin, kaempferol-3-glucoside, quercetin, kaempferol and ferulic acid as major constituents.

Mental rotation of sequentially presented 3D figures: sex and sex hormones related differences in behavioural and ERP measures

Mental rotation of 3D objects demonstrates one of the largest sex differences. We investigated sex and sex hormones-related differences in behaviour and event related potentials (ERP) using a modified Shepard and Metzler task composed of sequentially presented 3D figures in 29 men and 32 women. We demonstrated a significant increase in response time and decrease in both accuracy and positivity of the parietal ERP with increasing angular disparity between the figures. Higher angular disparity evoked an increase of global field power (GFP) from 270 to 460 ms and different activation topographies from 470 to 583 ms with lower parietal, but higher left frontal positivity. Flatter slopes in higher angular disparity condition suggest distinct strategies being implemented depending on the difficulty of the rotation. Men performed the task more accurately than women. Performance accuracy in women tended to be negatively related to estradiol while the response time tended to increase with increasing progesterone. There were no associations with testosterone. Women demonstrated higher GFP and an increased positivity over the parietal scalp area, while men showed higher activation in the left frontal cortex. Together these findings indicate dynamic angular disparity- and sex-related differences in brain activity during mental rotation of 3D figures.

Merge-Generability as the Key Concept of Human Language: Evidence From Neuroscience.

Ever since the inception of generative linguistics, various dependency patterns have been widely discussed in the literature, particularly as they pertain to the hierarchy based on “weak generation” – the so-called Chomsky Hierarchy. However, humans can make any possible dependency patterns by using artificial means on a sequence of symbols (e.g., computer programing). The differences between sentences in human language and general symbol sequences have been routinely observed, but the question as to why such differences exist has barely been raised. Here, we address this problem and propose a theoretical explanation in terms of a new concept of “Merge-generability,” that is, whether the structural basis for a given dependency is provided by the fundamental operation Merge. In our functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we tested the judgments of noun phrase (NP)-predicate (Pred) pairings in sentences of Japanese, an SOV language that allows natural, unbounded nesting configurations. We further introduced two pseudo-adverbs, which artificially force dependencies that do not conform to structures generated by Merge, i.e., non-Merge-generable; these adverbs enable us to manipulate Merge-generability (Natural or Artificial). By employing this novel paradigm, we obtained the following results. Firstly, the behavioral data clearly showed that an NP-Pred matching task became more demanding under the Artificial conditions than under the Natural conditions, reflecting cognitive loads that could be covaried with the increased number of words. Secondly, localized activation in the left frontal cortex, as well as in the left middle temporal gyrus and angular gyrus, was observed for the [Natural – Artificial] contrast, indicating specialization of these left regions in syntactic processing. Any activation due to task difficulty was completely excluded from activations in these regions, because the Natural conditions were always easier than the Artificial ones. And finally, the [Artificial – Natural] contrast resulted in the dorsal portion of the left frontal cortex, together with wide-spread regions required for general cognitive demands. These results indicate that Merge-generable sentences are processed in these specific regions in contrast to non-Merge-generable sentences, demonstrating that Merge is indeed a fundamental operation, which comes into play especially under the Natural conditions.

Generating Natural, Intelligible Speech From Brain Activity in Motor, Premotor, and Inferior Frontal Cortices.

Neural interfaces that directly produce intelligible speech from brain activity would allow people with severe impairment from neurological disorders to communicate more naturally. Here, we record neural population activity in motor, premotor and inferior frontal cortices during speech production using electrocorticography (ECoG) and show that ECoG signals alone can be used to generate intelligible speech output that can preserve conversational cues. To produce speech directly from neural data, we adapted a method from the field of speech synthesis called unit selection, in which units of speech are concatenated to form audible output. In our approach, which we call Brain-To-Speech, we chose subsequent units of speech based on the measured ECoG activity to generate audio waveforms directly from the neural recordings. Brain-To-Speech employed the user's own voice to generate speech that sounded very natural and included features such as prosody and accentuation. By investigating the brain areas involved in speech production separately, we found that speech motor cortex provided more information for the reconstruction process than the other cortical areas.

Analgesic Effects of Compression at Trigger Points Are Associated With Reduction of Frontal Polar Cortical Activity as Well as Functional Connectivity Between the Frontal Polar Area and Insula in Patients With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Trial

BackgroundCompression of myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) in muscles is reported to reduce chronic musculoskeletal pain. Although the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is implicated in development of chronic pain, the mechanisms of how MTrP compression at low back regions affects PFC activity remain under debate. In this study, we investigated effects of MTrP compression on brain hemodynamics and EEG oscillation in subjects with chronic low back pain.MethodsThe study was a prospective, randomized, parallel-group trial and an observer and subject-blinded clinical trial. Thirty-two subjects with chronic low back pain were divided into two groups: subjects with compression at MTrPs (n = 16) or those with non-MTrPs (n = 16). Compression at MTrP or non-MTrP for 30 s was applied five times, and hemodynamic activity (near-infrared spectroscopy; NIRS) and EEGs were simultaneously recorded during the experiment.ResultsThe results indicated that compression at MTrPs significantly (1) reduced subjective pain (P < 0.05) and increased the pressure pain threshold (P < 0.05), (2) decreased the NIRS hemodynamic activity in the frontal polar area (pPFC) (P < 0.05), and (3) increased the current source density (CSD) of EEG theta oscillation in the anterior part of the PFC (P < 0.05). CSD of EEG theta oscillation was negatively correlated with NIRS hemodynamic activity in the pPFC (P < 0.05). Furthermore, functional connectivity in theta bands between the medial pPFC and insula cortex was significantly decreased in the MTrP group (P < 0.05). The functional connectivity between those regions was positively correlated with subjective low back pain (P < 0.05).DiscussionThe results suggest that MTrP compression at the lumbar muscle modulates pPFC activity and functional connectivity between the pPFC and insula, which may relieve chronic musculoskeletal pain.Trial registrationThis trial was registered at University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN000033913) on 27 August 2018, at https://upload. umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000038660.

Temporo-frontal activation during phonological processing predicts gains in arithmetic facts in young children

Behavioral studies have shown discrepant results regarding the role of phonology in predicting math gains. The objective of this study was to use fMRI to study the role of activation during a rhyming judgment task in predicting behavioral gains on math fluency, multiplication, and subtraction skill. We focused within the left middle/superior temporal gyrus and left inferior frontal gyrus, brain areas associated with the storage of phonological representations and with their access, respectively. We ran multiple regression analyses to determine whether activation predicted gains in the three math measures, separately for younger (i.e. 10 years old) and older (i.e 12 years old) children. Results showed that activation in both temporal and frontal cortex only predicted gains in fluency and multiplication skill, and only for younger children. This study suggests that both temporal and frontal cortex activation during phonological processing are important in predicting gains in math tasks that involve the retrieval of facts that are stored as phonological codes in memory. Moreover, these results were specific to younger children, suggesting that phonology is most important in the early stages of math development. When the math task involved subtractions, which relies on quantity representations, phonological processes were not important in driving gains.