Anterior Temporal Areas Research Articles

Influence of panic disorder and paroxetine on brain functional hubs in drug-free patients

Background: The effects of panic disorder (PD) and pharmacotherapy on brain functional hubs in drug-free patients, and the utility of their degree centrality (DC) in diagnosing and predicting treatment response (TR) for PD, remained unclear. Aims: This study aimed to assess the effects of PD and paroxetine on brain functional hubs in drug-free patients and to identify neuroimaging biomarkers for diagnosing and predicting TR in patients with PD. Methods: Imaging data from 54 medication-free PD patients and 54 matched healthy controls (HCs) underwent DC and functional connectivity (FC) analyses before and after a 4-week paroxetine treatment. Diagnosis and prediction of TR models for PD were constructed using support vector machine (SVM) and support vector regression (SVR), with DC as features. Results: Patients with PD showed aberrant DC and FC in the anterior cingulum, temporal, and occipital areas compared with HCs at baseline. After treatment, DC of the patients increased in the calcarine cortex, lingual gyrus, and cerebellum IV/V, along with improved clinical symptoms. Utilizing voxel-wise DC values at baseline, the SVM effectively distinguished patients with PD from HCs with an accuracy of 83.33%. In SVR, the predicted TR significantly correlated with the observed TR (correlation coefficient ( r) = 0.893, Mean Squared Error = 0.009). Conclusion: Patients with PD exhibited abnormal DC and FC, notably in the limbic network, temporal, and occipital regions. Paroxetine ameliorated patients’ symptoms while altering their brain FC. SVM and SVR models, utilizing baseline DC, effectively distinguished the patients from HCs and accurately predicted TR.

From long-term to short-term: Distinct neural networks underlying semantic knowledge and its recruitment in working memory

Although numerous studies suggest that working memory (WM) and semantic long-term knowledge interact, the nature and underlying neural mechanisms of this intervention remain poorly understood. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this study investigated the extent to which neural markers of semantic knowledge in long-term memory (LTM) are activated during the WM maintenance stage in 32 young adults. First, the multivariate neural patterns associated with four semantic categories were determined via an implicit semantic activation task. Next, the participants maintained words – the names of the four semantic categories implicitly activated in the first task – in a verbal WM task. Multi-voxel pattern analyses showed reliable neural decoding of the four semantic categories in the implicit semantic activation and the verbal WM tasks. Critically, however, no between-task classification of semantic categories was observed. Searchlight analyses showed that for the WM task, semantic category information could be decoded in anterior temporal areas associated with abstract semantic category knowledge. In the implicit semantic activation task, semantic category information was decoded in superior temporal, occipital and frontal cortices associated with domain-specific semantic feature representations. These results indicate that item-level semantic activation during verbal WM involves shallow rather than deep semantic information.

A familiar face and person processing area in the human temporal pole

How does the brain process the faces of familiar people? Neuropsychological studies have argued for an area of the temporal pole (TP) linking faces with person identities, but magnetic susceptibility artifacts in this region have hampered its study with fMRI. Using data acquisition and analysis methods optimized to overcome this artifact, we identify a familiar face response in TP, reliably observed in individual brains. This area responds strongly to visual images of familiar faces over unfamiliar faces, objects, and scenes. However, TP did not just respond to images of faces, but also to a variety of high-level social cognitive tasks, including semantic, episodic, and theory of mind tasks. The response profile of TP contrasted with a nearby region of the perirhinal cortex that responded specifically to faces, but not to social cognition tasks. TP was functionally connected with a distributed network in the association cortex associated with social cognition, while PR was functionally connected with face-preferring areas of the ventral visual cortex. This work identifies a missing link in the human face processing system that specifically processes familiar faces, and is well placed to integrate visual information about faces with higher-order conceptual information about other people. The results suggest that separate streams for person and face processing reach anterior temporal areas positioned at the top of the cortical hierarchy.

Genetic screening of ANXA11 in Korean patients with Frontotemporal dementia syndrome

AbstractBackgroundPathogenic variants of ANXA11 have recently been identified in patients with ALS and ALS‐FTD in ALS cohorts. However, it is uncertain how prevalent the pathogenic variant of ANXA11 is in FTD syndrome. Thus, we performed genetic screening of ANXA11 in Korean patients with FTD to investigate the frequencies and clinical manifestations of ANXA11 mutations in Asian FTD population.MethodWe searched pathogenic variants of ANXA11 in whole exome database of Korean patients with FTD syndrome. Out of a total of 240 patients, 179 patients had been included in the previous Korean FTD genetic screening studies and the rest 61 patients have currently been enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal study of early onset dementia and family members‐FTD (LEAF‐FTD).ResultOne pathogenic variant in ANXA11, c.119A>G (p.D40G), was identified in three patients with right‐predominant svPPA. One of them has recently been reported elsewhere. They were all women and mean age of onset was 63 years old. Two of them had family history of dementia in first‐degree relatives. One patient showed dysarthria and motor weakness 3 years after the onset of symptoms who might have been presumed to have svPPA‐ALS, while the other two had no neurological deficits. Initial neuropsychological test results revealed selective impairments of naming and verbal memory. Brain MRIs demonstrated cortical atrophy in bilateral anterior temporal areas, worse on the right. One patient carried a pathogenic variant, p.V180I of PRNP as well as p.D40G of ANXA11, however, did not show any clinical features of CJD. Other than p.D40G variant, we found two variants of unknown significance of ANXA 11 in one patient with nfvPPA (c.1336‐6C>G) and the other with bvFTD (c.654G>A, p.T218 = ).ConclusionANXA11 mutations account for 0.8% of familial and 1.7% of sporadic ALS in European populations. The p.D40G variant identified in this study (1.25%, 3/240) had already been reported in both familial and sporadic ALS. Although the phenotypic variation of ANXA11 in FTD or FTD‐ALS syndrome remains unclear, our results suggest that right‐predominant svPPA may be a common FTD or FTD‐ALS manifestation in p.D40G variant. Further genetic screening of ANXA11 in Caucasian FTD cohort is needed.

Human brain responses are modulated when exposed to optimized natural images or synthetically generated images

Understanding how human brains interpret and process information is important. Here, we investigated the selectivity and inter-individual differences in human brain responses to images via functional MRI. In our first experiment, we found that images predicted to achieve maximal activations using a group level encoding model evoke higher responses than images predicted to achieve average activations, and the activation gain is positively associated with the encoding model accuracy. Furthermore, anterior temporal lobe face area (aTLfaces) and fusiform body area 1 had higher activation in response to maximal synthetic images compared to maximal natural images. In our second experiment, we found that synthetic images derived using a personalized encoding model elicited higher responses compared to synthetic images from group-level or other subjects’ encoding models. The finding of aTLfaces favoring synthetic images than natural images was also replicated. Our results indicate the possibility of using data-driven and generative approaches to modulate macro-scale brain region responses and probe inter-individual differences in and functional specialization of the human visual system.

P.219 Novel clinical phenotype of early-onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia with SNCB mutation

The continuum between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is well known spectrum of disease and genetic variability in this overlap has been previously reported. We report a novel clinical phenotype of early-onset ALS and FTD with a previously reported <i>SNCB</i> (β synuclein) mutation with Lewi body dementia. 45-year-old woman presented to our department complaining of progressive quadriparesis and dysphagia, which had started with right hemiparesis 4 months ago. She had a history of hypothyroidism but denied neurological family history. Neurologic examination revealed Hoffmann sign positive bilaterally and hyperreflexia of both knees. Nerve conduction study and electromyography showed low complex motor action potentials and widespread denervation in four limbs and thoracic paraspinal muscles without abnormal sensory nerve action potentials. CSF study was unremarkable. Diagnosis of probable ALS was established and riluzole 100mg daily was administered. Three months later, she reported a cognitive decline. In the neuropsychologic assessment battery, her language, memory, and frontal/executive function were below the first percentile for her age with relatively intact attention and visuospatial function. Brain MRI showed bilateral temporal atrophy, especially in the left anterior temporal area. SPECT revealed hypoperfusion in both frontal, temporal, and parietal cortices. Targeted next generation sequencing was conducted for ALS and FTD, and we found heterozygous c.208G>A mutation in <i>SNCB</i>. Despite tremendous research elucidating ALS-FTD, early onset case is rare. With this case, we report a new clinical phenotype of ALS-FTD with <i>SNCB</i> mutation, which has been only reported in few cases of Lewy body dementia and is being investigated recently. This case implies <i>SNCB,</i> which is assumed to contribute to neurodegeneration, can be a new candidate of ALS-FTD, especially in young age.

Atypical prosopagnosia following right hemispheric stroke: A 23-year follow-up study with M.T.

ABSTRACT Most findings on prosopagnosia to date suggest preserved voice recognition in prosopagnosia (except in cases with bilateral lesions). Here we report a follow-up examination on M.T., suffering from acquired prosopagnosia following a large unilateral right-hemispheric lesion in frontal, parietal, and anterior temporal areas excluding core ventral occipitotemporal face areas. Twenty-three years after initial testing we reassessed face and object recognition skills [Henke, K., Schweinberger, S. R., Grigo, A., Klos, T., & Sommer, W. (1998). Specificity of face recognition: Recognition of exemplars of non-face objects in prosopagnosia. Cortex, 34(2), 289–296]; [Schweinberger, S. R., Klos, T., & Sommer, W. (1995). Covert face recognition in prosopagnosia – A dissociable function? Cortex, 31(3), 517–529] and additionally studied voice recognition. Confirming the persistence of deficits, M.T. exhibited substantial impairments in famous face recognition and memory for learned faces, but preserved face matching and object recognition skills. Critically, he showed substantially impaired voice recognition skills. These findings are congruent with the ideas that (i) prosopagnosia after right anterior temporal lesions can persist over long periods > 20 years, and that (ii) such lesions can be associated with both facial and vocal deficits in person recognition.

Canonical Sentence Processing and the Inferior Frontal Cortex: Is There a Connection?

The role of left inferior frontal cortex (LIFC) in canonical sentence comprehension is controversial. Many studies have found involvement of LIFC in sentence production or complex sentence comprehension, but negative or mixed results are often found in comprehension of simple or canonical sentences. We used voxel-, region-, and connectivity-based lesion symptom mapping (VLSM, RLSM, CLSM) in left-hemisphere chronic stroke survivors to investigate canonical sentence comprehension while controlling for lexical-semantic, executive, and phonological processes. We investigated how damage and disrupted white matter connectivity of LIFC and two other language-related regions, the left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) and posterior temporal-inferior parietal area (LpT-iP), affected sentence comprehension. VLSM and RLSM revealed that LIFC damage was not associated with canonical sentence comprehension measured by a sensibility judgment task. LIFC damage was associated instead with impairments in a lexical semantic similarity judgment task with high semantic/executive demands. Damage to the LpT-iP, specifically posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG), predicted worse sentence comprehension after controlling for visual lexical access, semantic knowledge, and auditory-verbal short-term memory (STM), but not auditory single-word comprehension, suggesting pMTG is vital for auditory language comprehension. CLSM revealed that disruption of left-lateralized white-matter connections from LIFC to LATL and LpT-iP was associated with worse sentence comprehension, controlling for performance in tasks related to lexical access, auditory word comprehension, and auditory-verbal STM. However, the LIFC connections were accounted for by the lexical semantic similarity judgment task, which had high semantic/executive demands. This suggests that LIFC connectivity is relevant to canonical sentence comprehension when task-related semantic/executive demands are high.

Morphometric similarity deviations in stimulant use disorder point towards abnormal brain ageing

Chronic drug use negatively impacts ageing, resulting in diminished health and quality of life. However, little is known about biomarkers of abnormal ageing in stimulant drug users. Using morphometric similarity network mapping, a novel approach to structural connectomics, we first mapped cross-sectional morphometric similarity trajectories of ageing in the publicly available Rockland Sample (20–80 years of age, n = 665). We then compared morphometric similarity and neuropsychological function between non-treatment-seeking, actively using patients with stimulant use disorder (n = 183, mean age: 35.6 years) and healthy control participants (n = 148, mean age: 36.0 years). The significantly altered mean regional morphometric similarity was found in 43 cortical regions including the inferior and orbital frontal gyri, pre/postcentral gyri and anterior temporal, superior parietal and occipital areas. Deviations from normative morphometric similarity trajectories in patients with stimulant use disorder suggested abnormal brain ageing. Furthermore, deficits in paired associates learning were consistent with neuropathology associated with both ageing and stimulant use disorder. Morphometric similarity mapping provides a promising biomarker for ageing in health and disease and may complement existing neuropsychological markers of age-related cognitive decline. Neuropathological ageing mechanisms in stimulant use disorder warrant further investigation to develop more age-appropriate treatments for older people addicted to stimulant drugs.

Constructing the hierarchy of predictive auditory sequences in the marmoset brain.

Our brains constantly generate predictions of sensory input that are compared with actual inputs, propagate the prediction-errors through a hierarchy of brain regions, and subsequently update the internal predictions of the world. However, the essential feature of predictive coding, the notion of hierarchical depth and its neural mechanisms, remains largely unexplored. Here, we investigated the hierarchical depth of predictive auditory processing by combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and high-density whole-brain electrocorticography (ECoG) in marmoset monkeys during an auditory local-global paradigm in which the temporal regularities of the stimuli were designed at two hierarchical levels. The prediction-errors and prediction updates were examined as neural responses to auditory mismatches and omissions. Using fMRI, we identified a hierarchical gradient along the auditory pathway: midbrain and sensory regions represented local, shorter-time-scale predictive processing followed by associative auditory regions, whereas anterior temporal and prefrontal areas represented global, longer-time-scale sequence processing. The complementary ECoG recordings confirmed the activations at cortical surface areas and further differentiated the signals of prediction-error and update, which were transmitted via putative bottom-up γ and top-down β oscillations, respectively. Furthermore, omission responses caused by absence of input, reflecting solely the two levels of prediction signals that are unique to the hierarchical predictive coding framework, demonstrated the hierarchical top-down process of predictions in the auditory, temporal, and prefrontal areas. Thus, our findings support the hierarchical predictive coding framework, and outline how neural networks and spatiotemporal dynamics are used to represent and arrange a hierarchical structure of auditory sequences in the marmoset brain.

Surface-based map plasticity of brain regions related to sensory motor and pain information processing after osteonecrosis of the femoral head.

Pain is one of the manifestations of hip disorder and has been proven to lead to the remodeling of somatotopic map plasticity in the cortex. However, most studies are volume-based which may lead to inaccurate anatomical positioning of functional data. The methods that work on the cortical surface may be more sensitive than those using the full brain volume and thus be more suitable for map plasticity study. In this prospective cross-sectional study performed in Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China, 20 patients with osteonecrosis of the femoral head (12 males and 8 females, aged 56.80 ± 13.60 years) and 20 healthy controls (9 males and 11 females, aged 54.56 ± 10.23 years) were included in this study. Data of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging were collected. The results revealed that compared with healthy controls, compared with the healthy controls, patients with osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) showed significantly increased surface-based regional homogeneity (ReHo) in areas distributed mainly in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, frontal eye field, right frontal eye field, and the premotor cortex and decreased surface-based ReHo in the right primary motor cortex and primary sensory cortex. Regions showing significant differences in surface-based ReHo values between the healthy controls and patients with ONFH were defined as the regions of interests. Seed-based functional connectivity was performed to investigate interregional functional synchronization. When the areas with decreased surface-based ReHo in the frontal eye field and right premotor cortex were used as the regions of interest, compared with the healthy controls, the patients with ONFH displayed increased functional connectivity in the right middle frontal cortex and right inferior parietal cortex and decreased functional connectivity in the right precentral cortex and right middle occipital cortex. Compared with healthy controls, patients with ONFH showed significantly decreased cortical thickness in the para-insular area, posterior insular area, anterior superior temporal area, frontal eye field and supplementary motor cortex and reduced volume of subcortical gray matter nuclei in the right nucleus accumbens. These findings suggest that hip disorder patients showed cortical plasticity changes, mainly in sensorimotor- and pain-related regions. This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (approval No. 2018-041) on August 1, 2018.

Gender differences in functional connectivity of left-handers during the passage of an emotional stroop task

ntroduction. Neural correlates underlying the processing of emotional information, influence of emotional interference on cognitive control, gender difference in such activities remain a topic of research and discussion.Purpose. To study the connectivity of the brain regions involved in the processing of emotional information in left-handers, based on the EEG data obtained during their passage the emotional Stroop test (EST).Methods. EEG was registered during subjectpassage the EST successively two times. In EST a series including 240 words were presented at the center of the computer screen in one of two colors: red or green, words were emotional (negative) or neutral, shown in pseudorandom order. Some of these stimuli (target words names of animals and plants) participants were instructed to ignore (do not press any keys). Subjects were asked to respond with right hand (pressing P on a keyboard) for words printed in red and with left hand (pressing Q on a keyboard) for words printed in green. It was investigated source level functional connectivity (FC) in two groups of left-handers (17 to 22 years old): women (n=10) and men (n=10). FC was analysed between 21 regions of interest (ROI), selected on the base of fMRI research literature. Connections between ROIs were assessed using lagged phase synchronization (LPS) with eLORETA complex.Results. Statistically significant differences in FC by LPS between men and women groups were found only in first passage of EST. Particularly, FCof women, compared to men was: -higher between anterior cingulate cortex and left middle temporal area in delta band;-lower between left hippocampal formation and right frontal eye fields in beta-1;-and higher in beta-2 between right frontal eye fields and right anterior insula.were shorter for both emotional and neutral words. The interference effect was observed in both tests in women and only in the first test in men. Interference effect also was higher for responses with left hand for both groups. Repeated passage of the emotional Stroop test leads to reducing the effect of interference in men but not in women.Originality.The main neural networks have been identified, which in left-handed women are more involved in the processing of negative emotional information than in left-handed men.Conclusion. Compared to men, women have stronger connections of two areas of the brain involved in processing negatively colored emotional information, with other areas of the brain. The anterior cingulate cortex, which is considered to playan important role in attention and executive functions, is connected to the left middle temporal area, involved in the analysis of visual movement and words processing. Activation of theright anterior insular cortex, which is closely related to emotionalprocessing, is connected to the right frontal eye fields, which are known to play a key role in the goal directed eyes movements.Contrary, area of right frontal eye fields of men is more tightly connected to the contralateral left hippocampus, and is involved in semantic rather than emotional processing of information.Key words: emotional Stroop test;gender differences; left-handers; EEG; functional connectivity

Когнитивный вызванный потенциал Р300 у школьников 16–17 лет, проживающих в регионах Арктической зоны РФ

Living in adverse climatic and geographical conditions of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation requires mobilization of the adaptive mechanisms of the central nervous system in humans. The parameters of the event-related potential P300 serve as indicators of brain bioelectric processes associated with the mechanisms of information perception and processing. This study aimed to establish the parameters of the event-related potential P300 in 16–17-year-old schoolchildren living in different regions of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation based on a comparative analysis. The auditory event-related potential P300 was evaluated in subjects living in the Nenets Autonomus Okrug (NAO), Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO) and the Arkhangelsk Region (AR). P300 latency and amplitude were recorded by the Encephalan-131-03 electroencephalograph (Medicom MTD, Russia) in the frontal (F3, F4), central (C4, C3), parietal (P3, P4), mid-temporal (T3, T4), and anterior temporal (F7, F8) areas of the brain using the oddball method. In schoolchildren living in AR and YNAO, the amplitude-latency parameters of P300 did not differ significantly. Subjects living in NAO, the majority of whom are representatives of the indigenous peoples of the North (the Nenets), had a longer P300 latency than their peers from other regions. Р300 amplitudes in schoolchildren from all the regions under study were statistically identical. The author comes to the conclusion that longer information processing time, according to the P300 data, reflects the adaptive psychophysiological characteristics of the population with a long historical experience of living in the North.

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL MINUTE DATA AND THE Р300 AUDITORY EVOKED POTENTIAL IN YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF INTERNET ADDICTION BEHAVIOR

Background. The nature of changes in cerebral biopotentials as a neurobiological foundation of individual time in persons with different levels of internet addiction behavior remains insufficiently studied. However, these biopotentials reflect decision making speed and the quality of significant stimulus detection by brain structures. The paper aims to establish the correlation between the P300 cognitive evoked potential and individual minute (IM) test in young people with different levels of Internet addiction (IA) risk. Materials and methods. Healthy young people aged 16-17 years (n = 51) participated in the study. The survey was conducted according to the Chen scale (CIAS – Chen Internet Addiction Scale) modified by V. Malygin. This modification implies the calculation of the CIAS total score and the subjective assessment of time intervals by the IM test. The amplitude and latency of the P 300 auditory evoked potential were determined using the Neuron-Spectrum - 4 /VMP electroencephalograph (Neurosoft, Russia) in the frontal (F3, F4), temporal (F7, F8, T3, T4), central (C3, C4) and parietal (P3, P4) leads of the electroencephalogram. Results. No significant correlations were found between the IM time, P 300 data and the severity of IA signs in young people with a minimal risk of IA (less than 43 scores by CIAS). There was a decrease in the IM time and an increase in P300 amplitude (mainly in the frontal and anterior temporal areas) in persons with a risk of IA (43–65 scores by CIAS). In persons with a stable IA pattern (more than 65 scores by CIAS), the minimum P 300 amplitude in the F7, F8 brain areas was found against a relative increase in the IM time and the number of errors in decision making. Conclusion. An increased risk of Internet addiction behavior in young people is accompanied by phase changes in the ratios of P 300 amplitude (mainly in the anterior temporal areas), the quality of information processing and individual time perception.

Less reduced gray matter volume in the subregions of superior temporal gyrus predicts better treatment efficacy in drug-naive, first-episode schizophrenia.

Decreased gray matter volume (GMV) in the superior temporal gyrus (STG) has been implicated in the neurophysiology of schizophrenia. However, it remains unclear whether volumetric reduction in the subregions of the STG can predict treatment efficacy for schizophrenia. Our cohort included 44 drug-naive, first-episode patients, 42 unaffected siblings and 44 healthy controls. Voxel-based morphometry and pattern classification were utilized to analyze the acquired imaging data as per the anatomical subdivision by a well-defined brainnetome atlas. The patients presented lower GMV values in left TE1.0/1.2 (TE, anterior temporal visual association area) than the siblings, and lower GMV values in the left/right TE1.0/1.2 and left A22r (rostral area 22) than the controls. A positive correlation is observed between the GMV values in the right A38l (lateral area 38) and baseline Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total scores in the patients. Support vector regression (SVR) results exhibited a significant association between predicted (based on the GMV values in the right A38l) and actual symptomatic improvement based on the reduction ratio of the PANSS total scores (r = 0.498, p = 0.001). Our results suggest that normal structure in the right A38l of the STG may be an important factor indicative of the effects of antipsychotic drugs, which can be potentially used to monitor drug effects for first-episode patients at an early stage in clinical practice.

Longitudinal validity of PET-based staging of regional amyloid deposition.

Positron emission tomography (PET)‐based staging of regional amyloid deposition has recently emerged as a promising tool for sensitive detection and stratification of pathology progression in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Here we present an updated methodological framework for PET‐based amyloid staging using region–specific amyloid‐positivity thresholds and assess its longitudinal validity using serial PET acquisitions. We defined region‐specific thresholds of amyloid‐positivity based on Florbetapir‐PET data of 13 young healthy individuals (age ≤ 45y), applied these thresholds to Florbetapir‐PET data of 179 cognitively normal older individuals to estimate a regional amyloid staging model, and tested this model in a larger sample of patients with mild cognitive impairment (N = 403) and AD dementia (N = 85). 2‐year follow‐up Florbetapir‐PET scans from a subset of this sample (N = 436) were used to assess the longitudinal validity of the cross‐sectional model based on individual stage transitions and data‐driven longitudinal trajectory modeling. Results show a remarkable congruence between cross‐sectionally estimated and longitudinally modeled trajectories of amyloid accumulation, beginning in anterior temporal areas, followed by frontal and medial parietal areas, the remaining associative neocortex, and finally primary sensory‐motor areas and subcortical regions. Over 98% of individual amyloid deposition profiles and longitudinal stage transitions adhered to this staging scheme of regional pathology progression, which was further supported by corresponding changes in cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers. In conclusion, we provide a methodological refinement and longitudinal validation of PET‐based staging of regional amyloid accumulation, which may help improving early detection and in‐vivo stratification of pathologic disease progression in AD.

Social perspective-taking shapes brain hemodynamic activity and eye movements during movie viewing.

Putting oneself into the shoes of others is an important aspect of social cognition. We measured brain hemodynamic activity and eye-gaze patterns while participants were viewing a shortened version of the movie ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ from two perspectives: that of a potential organ donor, who violates moral norms by refusing to donate her kidney, and that of a potential organ recipient, who suffers in pain. Inter-subject correlation (ISC) of brain activity was significantly higher during the potential organ donor’s perspective in dorsolateral and inferior prefrontal, lateral and inferior occipital, and inferior–anterior temporal areas. In the reverse contrast, stronger ISC was observed in superior temporal, posterior frontal and anterior parietal areas. Eye-gaze analysis showed higher proportion of fixations on the potential organ recipient during both perspectives. Taken together, these results suggest that during social perspective-taking different brain areas can be flexibly recruited depending on the nature of the perspective that is taken.

Brain Damage Associated with Impaired Sentence Processing in Acute Aphasia.

Left-hemisphere brain damage commonly affects patients' abilities to produce and comprehend syntactic structures, a condition typically referred to as "agrammatism." The neural correlates of agrammatism remain disputed in the literature, and distributed areas have been implicated as important predictors of performance, for example, Broca's area, anterior temporal areas, and temporo-parietal areas. We examined the association between damage to specific language-related ROIs and impaired syntactic processing in acute aphasia. We hypothesized that damage to the posterior middle temporal gyrus, and not Broca's area, would predict syntactic processing abilities. One hundred four individuals with acute aphasia (<20 days poststroke) were included in the study. Structural MRI scans were obtained, and all participants completed a 45-item sentence-picture matching task. We performed an ROI-based stepwise regression analyses to examine the relation between cortical brain damage and impaired comprehension of canonical and noncanonical sentences. Damage to the posterior middle temporal gyrus was the strongest predictor for overall task performance and performance on noncanonical sentences. Damage to the angular gyrus was the strongest predictor for performance on canonical sentences, and damage to the posterior superior temporal gyrus predicted noncanonical scores when performance on canonical sentences was included as a cofactor. Overall, our models showed that damage to temporo-parietal and posterior temporal areas was associated with impaired syntactic comprehension. Our results indicate that the temporo-parietal area is crucially implicated in complex syntactic processing, whereas the role of Broca's area may be complementary.

Primary progressive aphasia and the FTD-MND spectrum disorders: clinical, pathological, and neuroimaging correlates

Objective: Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), is commonly considered the cognitive presentation of the frontotemporal dementia-motor neuron disease (FTD-MND) spectrum disorder. We evaluated the prevalence of primary progressive aphasia in a series of pathologically confirmed cases of FTD-MND spectrum. Methods: Pathologically confirmed cases of frontotemporal lobar degeneration-motor neuron disease (FTLD-MND) were obtained from the UCSF brain bank. Cases were analyzed for presence of language impairment via retrospective chart review of research visits that include neurologic exam, in-depth cognitive testing and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) imaging. Forty one cases were included. Thirty two were diagnosed with FTD-MND, while nine cases were diagnosed as MND-only from clinical evaluation. Results: Ten FTLD-MND cases (31%) presented with prominent or isolated language involvement consistent with a diagnosis of primary progressive aphasia (PPA), which we called progressive aphasia with motor neuron disease (PA-MND). Of these, three cases that mirrored the non-fluent variant of PPA (nfvPPA) were named nfvPA-MND. The imaging pattern of these nfvPA-MND showed atrophy strictly confined to the frontal and anterior temporal language cortical areas. Another group of seven cases that resembled patients with the semantic variant PPA (svPPA) were named svPA-MND. The group of svPPA-MND on imaging analysis showed selective atrophy of the temporal lobe and orbitofrontal cortex. Conclusions: Language impairment was a frequent phenotype of FTD-MND associated with focal atrophy patterns within the language networks. This data suggest patients with FTD-MND can present quite often with language phenotype of nfvPPA and svPPA, as opposed to exclusive bvFTD symptoms.

Coherence of EEG Frequency Components While Performing Alternative Finger Movements in Women with Different Modal Frequency of Alpha-rhythm

A test group consisting of 113 right-hand healthy women from the ages of 19 to 21 was divided into two groups according to the average magnitude of their individual modal α- frequency – groups with high and low values of individual modal α- frequency. The ideal time of a simple sensorimotor reaction and choice-point behavior as well as speed capabilities of nervous processes during the tapping test, and measures of the coherence of EEG frequency components individually determined for each testee in quiescent intervals and while performing alternative movements by the right hand fingers were evaluated. Women with high modal α-frequency had better speed capabilities of nervous processes. Women with a high IαF had a less time of simple and complex reactions. The increase of coherence coefficients was seen throughout the EEG frequency spectrum in women performing alternate movements by fingers. Alternate movements of fingers performed by women with low α-frequency are provided by even higher frequency coherence of the EEG components in frontal, anterior temporal and central areas and by much lower frequency in the posterior temporal and parietal-occipital cortex areas compared to testees with high α-frequency.