Bilateral VLPFC Research Articles

Executive control of freestyle skiing aerials athletes in different training conditions.

IntroductionDue to the actual limitation of training conditions, the freestyle skiing aerials winter training term is short. Training tasks such as adaptability training and developing new skills are needed in summer training. When facing different training environments, freestyle skiing aerial athletes’ executive control over their abilities could be affected, which can affect their performance. Therefore, we want to research the effect of training conditions on executive control in freestyle skiing aerials athletes and its neural mechanism.Materials and methodsThirty-two freestyle skiing aerials athletes were recruited. We evaluated their executive control and used fNIRS to measure oxygenated hemoglobin concentration changes in the prefrontal cortex during a rapid event-related design go/nogo task with different training condition-activated materials.ResultsAthletes’ behavior control in the summer condition has a lower accuracy than it is in the control condition. Athletes’ behavior control in the summer and winter training conditions had a longer reaction time than that in the control condition. The activation of the bilateral dlPFC and orbitofrontal cortex had a significant main effect across training conditions when freestyle skiing aerial athletes completed executive control tasks. The activation of athletes’ bilateral vlPFC and left dlPFC had an interaction between training conditions and behavioral control.ConclusionDifferent training conditions can lead to freestyle skiing aerial athletes executive control ability to drop, players in different training conditions show less activation on both sides of the vlPFC and orbitofrontal. The bilateral vlPFC and left dlPFC have an integrated effect on behavior inhibition across training conditions.

Percentage amplitude of fluctuation and structural covariance changes of subjective cognitive decline in patients: A multimodal imaging study.

Back groundSubjective cognitive decline (SCD) may be the first clinical sign of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The possible neural mechanisms of SCD are not well known. This study aimed to compare percent amplitude of fluctuation (PerAF) and structural covariance patterns in patients with SCD and healthy controls (HCs).MethodsWe enrolled 53 patients with SCD and 65 HCs. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data and T1-weighted anatomical brain 3.0-T MRI scans were collected. The PerAF approach was applied to distinguish altered brain functions between the two groups. A whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analysis was performed, and all significant regions were selected as regions of interest (ROIs) for the structural covariance analysis. Statistical analysis was performed using two-sample t-tests, and multiple regressions were applied to examine the relationships between neuroimaging findings and clinical symptoms.ResultsFunctional MRI results revealed significantly increased PerAF including the right hippocampus (HIPP) and right thalamus (THA) in patients with SCD relative to HCs. Gray matter volume (GMV) results demonstrated decreased GMV in the bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and right insula in patients with SCD relative to HCs. Taking these three areas including the bilateral vlPFC and right insula as ROIs, differences were observed in the structural covariance of the ROIs with several regions between the two groups. Additionally, significant correlations were observed between neuroimaging findings and clinical symptoms.ConclusionOur study investigated the abnormal PerAF and structural covariance patterns in patients with SCD, which might provide new insights into the pathological mechanisms of SCD.

Neuroimaging Mechanism of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Pain Management.

Purpose. To review the recent neuroimaging studies on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for pain management, with the aim of exploring possible mechanisms of CBT. Recent Findings. Current studies can be divided into four categories, mixed pain, fibromyalgia, migraine, and experimental pain, based on the type of disease included, with the same or different changes of brain regions after CBT intervention. According to structural and functional MRI analyses, changes of brain gray matter volume, activation and deactivation of brain regions, and intrinsic connectivity between brain regions were observed after CBT sessions. The brain regions involved mainly included some areas related to cognitive and emotional regulation. After comparison, the DLPFC, OFC, VLPFC, PCC and amygdala were found to be recurrent in multiple studies and may be key regions for CBT intervention in pain management. In the treatment of mixed chronic pain, CBT may decrease the gray matter volume of DLPFC, reduce ICN connection of OFC within the DAN network, and increase fALFF of the PCC. For FM intervention, CBT may activate the bilateral OFC and VLPFC, while in migraine, only the right OFC, VLPFC, and DLPFC were found to be more activated after CBT. In addition, the differential action of the left and right amygdala has also been shown in the latest study of migraine. In heat-evoked pain, CBT may increase the deactivation of the PCC, the connectivity between the DMN and right VLPFC, while diminishing the deactivation of VLPFC. Summary. After CBT, the brain showed stronger top-down pain control, cognitive reassessment, and altered perception of stimulus signals (chronic pain and repeated acute pain). The DLPFC, OFC, VLPFC, PCC, and amygdala may be the key brain regions in CBT intervention of pain.

Neurocircuitry of Contingency Awareness in Pavlovian Fear Conditioning.

In Pavlovian fear conditioning, contingency awareness provides an indicator of explicit fear learning. A less studied aspect of fear-based psychopathologies and their treatment, awareness of learned fear is a common cause of distress in persons with such conditions and is a focus of their treatment. The present work is a substudy of a broader fear-conditioning fMRI study. Following fear conditioning, we identified a subset of individuals who did not exhibit explicit awareness of the CS-US contingency. This prompted an exploratory analysis of differences in "aware" versus "unaware" individuals after fear conditioning. Self-reported expectancies of the CS-US contingency obtained immediately following fear conditioning were used to differentiate the two groups. Results corrected for multiple comparisons indicated significantly greater BOLD signal in the bilateral dlPFC, right vmPFC, bilateral vlPFC, left insula, left hippocampus, and bilateral amygdala for the CS+>CS- contrast in the aware group compared with the unaware group (all p values ≤ 0.004). PPI analysis with a left hippocampal seed indicated stronger coupling with the dlPFC and vmPFC in the aware group compared with the unaware group (all p values ≤ 0.002). Our findings add to our current knowledge of the networks involved in explicit learning and awareness of conditioned fear, with important clinical implications.

Caffeine Effect on Cognitive Function during a Stroop Task: fNIRS Study.

Acting as a brain stimulant, coffee resulted in heightening alertness, keeping arousal, improving executive speed, maintaining vigilance, and promoting memory, which are associated with attention, mood, and cognitive function. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a noninvasive optical method to monitor brain activity by measuring the absorption of the near-infrared light through the intact skull. This study is aimed at acquiring brain activation during executing task performance. The aim is to explore the effect of coffee on cognitive function by the fNIRS neuroimaging method, particularly on the prefrontal cortex regions. The behavioral experimental results on 31 healthy subjects with a Stroop task indicate that coffee can easily and effectively modulate the execute task performance by feedback information of the response time and accuracy rate. The findings of fNIRS showed that apparent hemodynamic changes were detected in the bilateral VLPFC regions and the brain activation regions varied with different coffee conditions.

Neurophysiological effects of multiple mood episodes in bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder is marked by progressive symptomatic changes, which have been linked with episode-related structural findings-particularly in the prefrontal cortex. However, few studies have examined neurofunctional and neurochemical effects of disease burden. In this study, we compared first- and multi-episode bipolar individuals. We hypothesized that the latter would demonstrate evidence of neurophysiological differences consistent with a model of progressive functional degradation of these networks. First- and multi-episode manic bipolar subjects participated in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) including a continuous performance task with emotional distractors, and in single-voxel (1 H) magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). A priori fMRI regions-of-interest (ROI) included structures comprising prefrontal-striatal-amygdala networks; (1 H)MRS voxels were placed within bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal (VLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Both ROI and voxel-based brain activation in response to emotional stimuli, and neurochemical concentrations derived from (1 H)MRS were compared across bipolar groups. Multi-episode bipolar subjects showed relatively lower regional activation across prefrontal-striatal-amygdala networks, including bilateral VLPFC, orbitofrontal cortex, ACC, putamen, caudate, and amygdala. Exploratory whole-brain, voxel-based analysis suggested additional areas of lower activation extending into Brodmann area 22, posterior parietal regions, and right thalamus. Glutamate and N-acetylaspartate (NAA) concentrations were also relatively lower in the ACC of multi-episode subjects. Disease burden, exemplified by multiple affective episodes is associated with evidence of widespread decrements in affective network activity. Lower ACC NAA concentration is similarly consistent with a model of progressive functional deficits. These findings support the functional significance of previously observed progressive structural changes throughout these regions.

Impact of Escalating Cognitive Workload and Temporal Demands on Surgeons Cognitive Function

Impact of Escalating Cognitive Workload and Temporal Demands on Surgeons Cognitive Function

Prefrontal Cortex Activation Upon a Demanding Virtual Hand-Controlled Task: A New Frontier for Neuroergonomics.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive vascular-based functional neuroimaging technology that can assess, simultaneously from multiple cortical areas, concentration changes in oxygenated-deoxygenated hemoglobin at the level of the cortical microcirculation blood vessels. fNIRS, with its high degree of ecological validity and its very limited requirement of physical constraints to subjects, could represent a valid tool for monitoring cortical responses in the research field of neuroergonomics. In virtual reality (VR) real situations can be replicated with greater control than those obtainable in the real world. Therefore, VR is the ideal setting where studies about neuroergonomics applications can be performed. The aim of the present study was to investigate, by a 20-channel fNIRS system, the dorsolateral/ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC/VLPFC) in subjects while performing a demanding VR hand-controlled task (HCT). Considering the complexity of the HCT, its execution should require the attentional resources allocation and the integration of different executive functions. The HCT simulates the interaction with a real, remotely-driven, system operating in a critical environment. The hand movements were captured by a high spatial and temporal resolution 3-dimensional (3D) hand-sensing device, the LEAP motion controller, a gesture-based control interface that could be used in VR for tele-operated applications. Fifteen University students were asked to guide, with their right hand/forearm, a virtual ball (VB) over a virtual route (VROU) reproducing a 42 m narrow road including some critical points. The subjects tried to travel as long as possible without making VB fall. The distance traveled by the guided VB was 70.2 ± 37.2 m. The less skilled subjects failed several times in guiding the VB over the VROU. Nevertheless, a bilateral VLPFC activation, in response to the HCT execution, was observed in all the subjects. No correlation was found between the distance traveled by the guided VB and the corresponding cortical activation. These results confirm the suitability of fNIRS technology to objectively evaluate cortical hemodynamic changes occurring in VR environments. Future studies could give a contribution to a better understanding of the cognitive mechanisms underlying human performance either in expert or non-expert operators during the simulation of different demanding/fatiguing activities.

Reduced but broader prefrontal activity in patients with schizophrenia during n-back working memory tasks: A multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy study

BackgroundCaudal regions of the prefrontal cortex, including the dorsolateral (DLPFC) and ventrolateral (VLPFC) prefrontal cortex, are involved in essential cognitive functions such as working memory. In contrast, more rostral regions, such as the frontopolar cortex (FpC), have integrative functions among cognitive functions and thereby contribute crucially to real-world social activity. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have shown patients with schizophrenia had different DLPFC activity pattern in response to cognitive load changes compared to healthy controls; however, the spatial relationship between the caudal and rostral prefrontal activation has not been evaluated under less-constrained conditions. MethodTwenty-six patients with schizophrenia and 26 age-, sex-, and premorbid-intelligence-matched healthy controls participated in this study. Hemodynamic changes during n-back working memory tasks with different cognitive loads were measured using multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). ResultsHealthy controls showed significant task-related activity in the bilateral VLPFC and significant task-related decreased activity in the DLPFC, with greater signal changes when the task required more cognitive load. In contrast, patients with schizophrenia showed activation in the more rostral regions, including bilateral DLPFC and FpC. Neither decreased activity nor greater activation in proportion to elevated cognitive load occurred. ConclusionsThis multi-channel NIRS study demonstrated that activation intensity did not increase in patients with schizophrenia associated with cognitive load changes, suggesting hypo-frontality as cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. On the other hand, patients had broader prefrontal activity in areas such as the bilateral DLPFC and FpC regions, thus suggesting a hyper-frontality compensatory response.

Inter-individual differences in successful perspective taking during pain perception mediates emotional responsiveness in self and others: An fMRI study

Human empathy is an important component of social cognition that involves complex processes of emotional perspective taking and the issue of self/other distinction. Empathic perception enables us to experience negative emotions when someone else undergoes painful events. We investigated the influence of an extended time interval (10s) and subjective performance evaluation (following each trial) of perspective taking on the cortical and subcortical correlates of pain empathy in eighteen healthy subjects using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Subjects were presented pictures of hands and feet in painful and non-painful situations. They were instructed to simply view the picture (View) or adopt either their own perspective (Self) or the perspective of a third-person (Other). Prolonged time intervals of stimulus presentation enabled the analysis of different perspective taking processes (Self versus Other). Enhanced activation in the left supramarginal gyrus was detected for adopting the Self compared to the Other perspective. Time course analysis showed an early peak in the trials, suggesting that taking the first-person perspective is an intuitive more automatic process. The comparison between the Other and Self condition evoked stronger activity in dorso- and ventrolateral prefrontal areas and the superior temporal sulcus (STS). For these areas, a peak in the later phase of the trials was found, suggesting that taking the third-person perspective requires more effort and is an ongoing process. This was also supported by the fact that the participants were subjectively more successful in adopting the Self perspective compared to the Other. Our findings support that especially during the Other condition, prolonged time periods seem to facilitate empathic responses. Individual ratings of performance enabled the comparison between subjects that were successful and unsuccessful at taking the Self or Other perspective. For Self, differential activations were found in the left insula and postcentral gyrus. For Other, differential activations were mainly observed in the left pallidum, bilateral VLPFC, the right middle orbitofrontal cortex OFC and the middle cingulate cortex (MCC). These results suggest that trial-specific success ratings allow us to disentangle differences between effort-related and successful engagement in perspective taking. These two adjustments to the well-known paradigm showed new insight into the aspects of perspective taking during pain perception.

Frontal-Amygdala Connectivity Alterations During Emotion Downregulation in Bipolar I Disorder

The symptoms of bipolar disorder suggest dysfunction of emotion regulatory networks. In healthy control populations, downregulation of emotional responses activates the ventral lateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and dampens amygdala activation. This study investigated frontal and limbic function and connectivity during emotion downregulation in euthymic subjects with bipolar I disorder (BPI) and healthy control subjects. Thirty BPI and 26 control subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning while performing an emotion processing task with passive viewing and emotion downregulation conditions. Contrasts were made for each group comparing the downregulation and passive viewing conditions, and these were entered into a between-group random effects analysis to assess group differences in activation. Psychophysiological interaction analyses were conducted to test for significant group differences in functional connectivity between the amygdala and inhibitory frontal regions (i.e., vlPFC). Control subjects showed the expected robust bilateral activation of frontal and limbic regions during passive viewing and emotion downregulation tasks. Between-group analyses revealed similar activation of BPI and control subjects during passive viewing but significantly decreased activation in bilateral vlPFC, bilateral anterior and posterior cingulate, medial frontal gyrus, and bilateral dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex during emotion downregulation in subjects with BPI. Connectivity analysis demonstrated that control subjects had significantly greater negative functional connectivity between the left amygdala and bilateral vlPFC compared with subjects with BPI. This study provides evidence that dysfunction in the neural networks responsible for emotion regulation, including the prefrontal cortex, cingulate, and subcortical structures, are present in BPI subjects, even while euthymic.

Differential activation of ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during working memory retrieval

Brain imaging studies have suggested a predominant involvement of prefrontal areas during retrieval of information from working memory (WM). This study used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the gradual recruitment of brain areas during verbal WM-retrieval with a parametrically varied modified version of the Sternberg Item Recognition Paradigm. In particular, we were interested in activation differences during retrieval of negative and positive probes. Fifteen subjects performed a WM-task which required the retrieval of a probe letter from a set of a maximum of three letters. The analysis of the retrieval period regardless of probe type revealed bilateral VLPFC activation during retrieval from a single remembered item. These initially activated regions showed a gradual activation increase of left VLPFC (BA 47) and anterior PFC (BA 10) as well as and bilateral DLPFC (BA 9) with increasing retrieval demand, i.e. during retrieval of two and three previously remembered letters. The comparison of negative and positive probes (non-targets versus targets) revealed greater activity in VLPFC (BA 47) in response to negative than to positive probes. These findings demonstrate that ventral areas of prefrontal cortex seem to be differentially engaged during the discrimination of a non-target from a previously manipulated set.

Neural correlates of developmental differences in risk estimation and feedback processing

The primary aim of this study was to compare the neural substrates of decision-making in middle-aged children and adults. To this end, we collected fMRI data while 9–12-year-olds and 18–26-year-olds performed a simple gambling task. The task was designed to tap two important aspects of decision-making: risk estimation and feedback processing. We examined how orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) contributed to risk estimation, and how ventrolateral and medial prefrontal cortices (VLPFC and medial PFC) contributed to negative feedback processing in children and adults. Region of interest analyses revealed differences in brain activation between children and adults for ACC and lateral OFC. ACC was recruited more for high-risk than for low-risk trials, and this difference was larger for children than for adults. In contrast, children and adults did not differ in activation for OFC or DLPFC. These data suggest that children's decision-making under uncertainty is associated with a high degree of response conflict. Both age groups exhibited bilateral VLPFC (BA 47) and medial PFC/ACC (BA 6/ BA 32 (dorsal) and 24 (ventral)) activation associated with negative feedback processing. Relative to adults, children engaged lateral OFC more strongly for negative relative to positive feedback. These results indicate that children may find negative feedback more aversive than adults do. In summary, children aged 9–12 years and adults recruit similar brain regions during risk-estimation and feedback processing, but some key differences between the groups provide insight into the factors contributing to developmental changes in decision-making.