Common Areas Of Activation Research Articles

Functional neuroanatomical correlates of contingency judgement

Contingency judgement is an ability to detect relationships between events and is crucial in the allocation of attentional resources for reasoning, categorization, and decision making to control behaviour in our environment. Research has suggested that the allocation of attention is sensitive to the frequency of contingency information whether it constitutes a negative, zero or positive relationship. The aim of the present study was to explore the functional neuroanatomical correlates of contingency judgement with different frequencies and whether these are distinct from each other or whether they rely on a common mechanism. Using three contingency tasks within a streaming paradigm (one each for negative, zero, and positive contingency frequencies), we assessed brain activity by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 20 participants. Contingency frequency was manipulated between blocks which allowed us to determine the neural correlates of each of the three contingency tasks as well as the common areas of activation. The conjunction of task activation showed activity in left parietal cortices (BA 23, 40) and superior temporal gyrus (BA42). Further, the interaction analysis revealed distinct areas that mainly involve lateral (BA 45) and medial (BA 9) prefrontal cortices in the judgment of negative contingencies compared with positive and zero contingencies. We interpret the finding as evidence that the shared regions may be involved in coding, integration, and updating of associative relations and distinct regions may be involved in the investment of attentional resources to varied degrees in the computation of contingencies to make a judgment.

A Commentary on “Can Neuroscience Provide a New Foundation for the Rorschach Variables?” (Jimura et al., 2021)

A Commentary on “Can Neuroscience Provide a New Foundation for the Rorschach Variables?” (Jimura et al., 2021)

Regions of the brain activated in bladder filling vs rectal distention in healthy adults: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies.

Adults with pelvic floor disorders commonly present with overlapping bladder and bowel symptoms; however, the relationship between urinary and defecatory dysfunction is not well understood. Our aim was to compare and determine if overlapping brain regions are activated during bladder filling and rectal distention in healthy adults. We conducted separate Pubmed searches for neuroimaging studies investigating the effects of rectal distention and bladder filling on brain activation in healthy subjects. Coordinates of activated regions were extracted with cluster-level threshold P < .05 and compared using the activation likelihood estimate approach. Results from the various studies were pooled and a contrast analysis was performed to identify any common areas of activation between bladder filling and rectal distension. We identified 96 foci of activation from 14 neuroimaging studies on bladder filling and 182 foci from 17 studies on rectal distension in healthy adults. Regions activated during bladder filling included right insula, right and left thalamus, and right periaqueductal grey. Regions activated during rectal distention included right and left insula, right and left thalamus, left postcentral gyrus, and right inferior parietal lobule. Contrast analysis revealed common activation of the right insula with both rectal distention and bladder filling. Bladder filling and rectal distention activate several separate areas of the brain involved in sensory processing in healthy adults. The common activation of the insula, the region responsible for interoception, in these two conditions may offer an explanation for the coexistence of bladder and defecatory symptoms in pelvic floor disorders.

Inhibit, switch, and update: A within-subject fMRI investigation of executive control

An influential model of executive control suggests that it comprises three dissociable processes: working memory, inhibition, and task switching. Multiple studies have investigated how these processes are individually implemented in the human brain. However, few have directly investigated this question using a common task architecture and a within-subject design. Here, healthy adult humans (N = 22) performed a novel executive control task during fMRI scanning. The paradigm independently manipulated working memory updating, inhibition, and task switching demands, while keeping all other task features constant. Direct contrasts of each executive task with a closely matched control condition revealed a differentiated pattern of recruitment across control tasks: working memory was associated with activity in dorsolateral prefrontal, lateral parietal and insular cortices bilaterally; Inhibition engaged right lateral and superior medial prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal lobules bilaterally, right middle and inferior temporal cortex, and ventral visual processing regions; Task switching was associated with bilateral activity in medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus, as well as left inferior parietal lobule, lateral temporal cortex and right thalamus. A conjunction of all executive versus control task activations revealed common areas of activation overlapping regions of canonical frontoparietal control and dorsal attention networks. Further, multivariate analyses suggest that working memory may be a putative common factor supporting executive functioning. Taken together, these results are consistent with a hybrid model of executive control in the human brain.

Effects of task complexity on activation of language areas in a semantic decision fMRI protocol

Language tasks used for clinical fMRI studies may be too complex for some patients with cognitive impairments, and “easier” versions are sometimes substituted, though the effects on brain activity of such changes in task complexity are largely unknown. To investigate these differences, we compared two versions of an fMRI language comprehension protocol, with different levels of difficulty, in 24 healthy right-handed adults.The protocol contrasted an auditory word comprehension task (semantic decision) with a nonspeech control task using tone sequences (tone decision). In the “complex” version (CV), the semantic decision task required two complex semantic decisions for each word, and the tone decision task required the participant to count the number of target tones in each sequence. In the “easy” version (EV), the semantic task required only a single easier decision, and the tone task required only detection of the presence or absence of a target tone in each sequence. The protocols were adapted for a Brazilian population.Typical left hemisphere language lateralization was observed in 92% of participants for both CV and EV using the whole-brain lateralization index, and typical language lateralization was also observed for others regions of interest. Task performance was superior on the EV compared to the CV (p=0.014). There were many common areas of activation across the two version; however, the CV produced greater activation in the left superior and middle frontal giri, angular gyrus, and left posterior cingulate gyrus compared to the EV, the majority of which are areas previously identified with language and semantic processing. The EV produced stronger activation only in a small area in the posterior middle temporal gyrus.These results reveal differences between two versions of the protocol and provide evidence that both are useful for language lateralization and worked well for Brazilian population. The complex version produces stronger activation in several nodes of the semantic network and therefore is elected for participants who can perform well these tasks.

The neural substrates for the different modalities of movement imagery

Research highlights that internal visual, external visual and kinesthetic imagery differentially effect motor performance (White & Hardy, 1995; Hardy & Callow, 1999). However, patterns of brain activation subserving these different imagery perspectives and modalities have not yet been established. In the current study, we applied the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire-2 (VMIQ-2) to study the brain activation underpinning these types of imagery. Participants with high imagery ability (using the VMIQ-2) were selected to participate in the study. The experimental conditions involved imagining an action (one item from the VMIQ-2) using internal visual imagery, external visual imagery, kinesthetic imagery and a perceptual control condition involved looking at a fixation cross. The imagery conditions were presented using a block design and the participants’ brain activation was recorded using 3T fMRI. A post-experimental questionnaire was administered to test if participants were able to maintain the imagery during the task and if they switched between the imagery perspective/modalities. Four participants failed to adhere to the imagery conditions, and their data was excluded from analysis. As hypothesized, the different perspectives and modalities of imagery elicited both common areas of activation (in the right supplementary motor area, BA6) and dissociated areas of activation. Specifically, internal visual imagery activated occipital, parietal and frontal brain areas (i.e., the dorsal stream) while external visual imagery activated occipital ventral stream areas and kinesthetic imagery activated caudate and cerebellum areas. These results provide the first central evidence for the visual perspectives and modalities delineated in the VMIQ-2, and, initial biological validity for the VMIQ-2. However, given that only one item from the VMIQ-2 was employed, future fMRI research needs to explore all items to further examine these contentions.

Neural correlates of audiovisual temporal processing – Comparison of temporal order and simultaneity judgments

Multisensory integration is one of the essential features of perception. Though the processing of spatial information is an important clue to understand its mechanisms, a complete knowledge cannot be achieved without taking into account the processing of temporal information. Simultaneity judgments (SJs) and temporal order judgments (TOJs) are the two most widely used procedures for explicit estimation of temporal relations between sensory stimuli. Behavioral studies suggest that both tasks recruit different sets of cognitive operations. On the other hand, empirical evidence related to their neuronal underpinnings is still scarce, especially with regard to multisensory stimulation. The aim of the current fMRI study was to explore neural correlates of both tasks using paradigm with audiovisual stimuli. Fifteen subjects performed TOJ and SJ tasks grouped in 18-second blocks. Subjects were asked to estimate onset synchrony or temporal order of onsets of non-semantic auditory and visual stimuli. Common areas of activation elicited by both tasks were found in the bilateral fronto-parietal network, including regions whose activity can be also observed in tasks involving spatial selective attention. This can be regarded as an evidence for the hypothesis that tasks involving selection based on temporal information engage the similar regions as the attentional tasks based on spatial information. The direct contrast between the SJ task and the TOJ task did not reveal any regions showing stronger activity for SJ task than in TOJ task. The reverse contrast revealed a number of left hemisphere regions which were more active during the TOJ task than the SJ task. They were found in the prefrontal cortex, the parietal lobules (superior and inferior) and in the occipito-temporal regions. These results suggest that the TOJ task requires recruitment of additional cognitive operations in comparison to SJ task. They are probably associated with forming representations of stimuli as separate and temporally ordered sensory events.

Neural correlates associated with superior tactile symmetry perception in the early blind

Symmetry is an organizational principle that is ubiquitous throughout the visual world. However, this property can also be detected through non-visual modalities such as touch. The role of prior visual experience on detecting tactile patterns containing symmetry remains unclear. We compared the behavioral performance of early blind and sighted (blindfolded) controls on a tactile symmetry detection task. The tactile patterns used were similar in design and complexity as in previous visual perceptual studies. The neural correlates associated with this behavioral task were identified with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In line with growing evidence demonstrating enhanced tactile processing abilities in the blind, we found that early blind individuals showed significantly superior performance in detecting tactile symmetric patterns compared to sighted controls. Furthermore, comparing patterns of activation between these two groups identified common areas of activation (e.g. superior parietal cortex) but key differences also emerged. In particular, tactile symmetry detection in the early blind was also associated with activation that included peri-calcarine cortex, lateral occipital (LO), and middle temporal (MT) cortex, as well as inferior temporal and fusiform cortex. These results contribute to the growing evidence supporting superior behavioral abilities in the blind, and the neural correlates associated with crossmodal neuroplasticity following visual deprivation.

Reading in Devanagari: Insights from functional neuroimaging.

Objectives:The current study used functional MRI (fMRI) to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the neural network underlying visual word recognition in Hindi/Devanagari, an alphasyllabic – partly alphabetic and partly syllabic Indian writing system on which little research has hitherto been carried out.Materials and Methods:Sixteen (5F, 11M) neurologically healthy, native Hindi/Devanagari readers aged 21 to 50 named aloud 240 Devanagari words which were either visually linear – had no diacritics or consonant ligatures above or below central plane of text, e.g. फल, वाहन, or nonlinear – had at least one diacritic and/or ligature, e.g. फूल, किरण, and which further included 120 words each of high and low frequency. Words were presented in alternating high and low frequency blocks of 10 words each at 2s/word in a block design, with linear and nonlinear words in separate runs. Word reading accuracy was manually coded, while fMRI images were acquired on a 3T scanner with an 8-channel head-coil, using a T2*-weighted EPI sequence (TR/TE = 2s/35ms).Results:After ensuring high word naming accuracy (M = 97.6%, SD = 2.3), fMRI data analyses (at FDR P < 0.005) revealed that reading Devanagari words elicited robust activations in bilateral occipito-temporal, inferior frontal and precentral regions as well as both cerebellar hemispheres. Other common areas of activation included left inferior parietal and right superior temporal cortices. Primary differences seen between nonlinear and linear word reading networks were in the right temporal areas and cerebellum.Conclusion:Distinct from alphabetic scripts, which are linear in their spatial organization, and recruit a primarily left-lateralized network for word reading, our results revealed a bilateral reading network for Devanagari. We attribute the additional activations in Devanagari to increased visual processing demands arising from the complex visuospatial arrangement of symbols in this ancient script.

Neural Substrates for Semantic Memory of Familiar Songs: Is There an Interface between Lyrics and Melodies?

Findings on song perception and song production have increasingly suggested that common but partially distinct neural networks exist for processing lyrics and melody. However, the neural substrates of song recognition remain to be investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine the neural substrates involved in the accessing “song lexicon” as corresponding to a representational system that might provide links between the musical and phonological lexicons using positron emission tomography (PET). We exposed participants to auditory stimuli consisting of familiar and unfamiliar songs presented in three ways: sung lyrics (song), sung lyrics on a single pitch (lyrics), and the sung syllable ‘la’ on original pitches (melody). The auditory stimuli were designed to have equivalent familiarity to participants, and they were recorded at exactly the same tempo. Eleven right-handed nonmusicians participated in four conditions: three familiarity decision tasks using song, lyrics, and melody and a sound type decision task (control) that was designed to engage perceptual and prelexical processing but not lexical processing. The contrasts (familiarity decision tasks versus control) showed no common areas of activation between lyrics and melody. This result indicates that essentially separate neural networks exist in semantic memory for the verbal and melodic processing of familiar songs. Verbal lexical processing recruited the left fusiform gyrus and the left inferior occipital gyrus, whereas melodic lexical processing engaged the right middle temporal sulcus and the bilateral temporo-occipital cortices. Moreover, we found that song specifically activated the left posterior inferior temporal cortex, which may serve as an interface between verbal and musical representations in order to facilitate song recognition.

Auditory Hallucinations Elicit Similar Brain Activation in Psychotic and Nonpsychotic Individuals

While auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are most characteristic for schizophrenia, they also occur in nonpsychotic individuals in the absence of a psychiatric or neurological disorder and in the absence of substance abuse. At present, it is unclear if AVH in these nonpsychotic individuals constitute the same phenomenon as AVH in psychotic patients. Comparing brain activation during AVH between nonpsychotic and psychotic individuals could provide important clues regarding this question. 21 nonpsychotic subjects with AVH and 21 matched psychotic patients indicated the presence of AVH during 3T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. To identify common areas of activation during the experience of AVH in both groups, a conjunction analysis was performed. In addition, a 2-sample t-test was employed to discover possible differences in AVH-related activation between the groups. Several common areas of activation were observed for the psychotic and nonpsychotic subjects during the experience of AVH, consisting of the bilateral inferior frontal gyri, insula, superior temporal gyri, supramarginal gyri and postcentral gyri, left precentral gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, superior temporal pole, and right cerebellum. No significant differences in AVH-related brain activation were present between the groups. The presence of multiple common areas of AVH-related activation in psychotic and nonpsychotic individuals, in the absence of significant differences, implicates the involvement of the same cortical network in the experience of AVH in both groups.

Communication with emblematic gestures: Shared and distinct neural correlates of expression and reception

Emblematic (or symbolic) gestures allow individuals to convey a variety of thoughts and emotions ranging from approval to hostility. The use of such gestures involves the execution of a codified motor act by the addresser and its perception and decoding by the addressee. To examine underlying common and distinct neural correlates, we used fMRI tasks in which subjects viewed video clips of emblematic one-hand gestures. They were asked to (1) take the perspective of the addresser and imagine executing the gestures ("expression" condition), and to (2) take the perspective of the addressee and imagine being confronted with the gestures ("reception" condition). Common areas of activation were found in inferior frontal, medial frontal, and posterior temporal cortices with left-hemispheric predominance as well as in the cerebellum. The distinction between regions specifically involved in the expression or reception condition partly resembled the dorsal and ventral stream dichotomy of visual processing with junctions in inferior frontal and medial prefrontal cortices. Imagery of gesture expression involved the dorsal visual stream as well as higher-order motor areas. In contrast, gesture reception encompassed regions related to semantic processing, and medial prefrontal areas known to be involved in the process of understanding the intentions of others. In conclusion, our results provide evidence for a dissociation in representations of emblematic gesture processing between addresser and addressee in addition to shared components in language-related areas.

Lion – tiger – stripes: Neural correlates of indirect semantic priming across processing modalities

"Lions" do not have "stripes". However, via the word "tiger" both words are closely connected within the semantic network. With the present study we pursued two goals: to detect neural correlates of (1) directly and indirectly related word pairs by means of priming, and (2) to assess the effect of presentation modality. Stimuli were presented with a short SOA of 350 ms as subjects performed a lexical decision task during fMRI measurement. Four experimental conditions were compared: directly related (picture-frame), indirectly related (anvil-nail), unrelated (steamboat-needle) and nonword trials (chalk-edan), presented in a uni- (word-word) and cross-modal (auditory-word) version. Behavioral data revealed a modality-independent priming effect only for direct semantic priming. On a neural level, directly linked words led to left-lateralized activations in fronto-temporo-parietal areas. Indirect priming led to right-hemispheric fronto-parietal signal changes. Common areas of activation for uni- and cross-modal priming were found within the left middle temporal gyrus and right precuneus for direct priming and within the right insula for indirect priming. The comparison of the semantic distances (direct>indirect) showed one region activated modality-independent: the precuneus. Direct priming is associated with activation clusters corresponding to a large left-lateralized network. Indirect priming recruits right-hemispheric regions, reflecting widespread semantic fields and attentional components. The modality-independent comparison of direct and indirect priming revealed common areas of activation supporting an amodal rather than multiple semantic systems. The activation related to semantic distances underpins the special role of the precuneus. This region is involved in semantic priming and association processing whereas episodic memory contents might be addressed.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Investigation of Overlapping Lateral Occipitotemporal Activations Using Multi-Voxel Pattern Analysis

Several functional areas are proposed to reside in human lateral occipitotemporal cortex, including the motion-selective human homolog of macaque area MT (hMT), object-form-selective lateral occipital complex (LO), and body-selective extrastriate body area (EBA). Indeed, several functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have reported significant activation overlap among these regions. The standard interpretation of this overlap would be that the common areas of activation reflect engagement of common neural systems. Alternatively, motion, object form, and body form may be processed independently within this general region. To distinguish these possibilities, we first analyzed the lateral occipitotemporal responses to motion, objects, bodies, and body parts with whole-brain group-average analyses and within-subjects functional region of interest (ROI) analyses. The activations elicited by these stimuli, each relative to a matched control, overlapped substantially in the group analysis. When hMT, LO, and EBA were defined functionally within subjects, each ROI in each hemisphere (except right-hemisphere hMT) showed significant selectivity for motion, intact objects, bodies, and body parts, although only the peak voxel of each region was tested. In contrast, multi-voxel analyses of variations in selectivity patterns revealed that visual motion, object form, and the form of the human body elicited three relatively independent patterns of fMRI activity in lateral occipitotemporal cortex. Multi-voxel approaches, in contrast to other methods, can reveal the functional significance of overlapping fMRI activity in extrastriate cortex and, by extension, elsewhere in the brain.

Effects of syntactic complexity in L1 and L2; An fMRI study of Korean–English bilinguals

The neural mechanisms underlying the syntactic processing of sentence comprehension in Korean (L1) and English (L2) by late bilinguals were investigated using functional MRI. The Korean native speakers were asked to read sentences with different levels of syntactic complexity in L1 and L2 and respond to comprehension questions concerning the sentences. The syntactic complexity was varied using a center-embedded sentence “The director that the maid introduced ignored the farmer” or a conjoined sentence “The maid introduced the director and ignored the farmer”. It was found that the major areas involved in sentence processing such as the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), bilateral inferior parietal gyrus, and occipital lobe including cuneus, and lingual gyrus were commonly activated during the processing of both L1 and L2. However, the pattern of activation was different for L1 and L2 in the left IFG. The amount of activation was greater for embedded sentences than for conjoined sentences in L1 while no difference was found in L2. These results suggest that the cortical areas involved with syntactic processing in L1 and L2 are shared, but that the underlying neural mechanisms are different. The findings of the present study are discussed in comparison with Hasegawa et al.’s (Hasegawa, M., Carpenter, P.A., Just, M.A., 2002. An fMRI study of bilingual sentence comprehension and workload. NeuroImage 15, 647–660.) and Yokoyama et al.’s (Yokoyama, S., Okamoto, H., Miyamoto, T., Yoshimoto, K., Kim, J., Iwata, K., Jeong, H., Uchida, S., Ikuta, N., Sassa, Y., Nakamura, W., Horie, K., Sato, S., Kawashima, R., 2006. Cortical activation in the processing of passive sentences in L1 and L2: An fMRI study. NeuroImage 30, 570–579.) studies which also found common areas of activation but different patterns of activation during the processing of L1 and L2.

Interindividual uniformity and variety of the “Writing center”: A functional MRI study

Our aim is to investigate the neural substrates for writing using fMRI (twenty right-handed subjects). We assumed that common areas involved in both writing with right and left hands are crucial to the central process of writing. We employed Japanese phonograms ( Kana), in which phoneme–grapheme conversion would be extremely simple. Brain activation was examined under three conditions: (1) written naming with the right hand (WR), (2) written naming with the left hand (WL), and (3) naming silently (NA). While the comparison of WR to NA (WR > NA) exhibited activation only in the left frontoparietal area, the WL > NA comparison exhibited broader activation than the WR > NA comparison, i.e., the left frontoparietal area except the motor and sensory areas and the right frontoparietal area. A conjunction analysis in SPM2 revealed common areas of activation across the WR > NA and WL > NA comparisons, which are assumed to be crucial to writing. In the group analysis, three areas were found to be activated: the posterior end of the left superior frontal gyrus, which is superior and posterior to Exner's center; the anterior part of the left superior parietal lobule; and the lower part of the anterior limb of the left supramarginal gyrus. In the single-subject analysis, whereas the first two of the above three areas were found to be crucial for writing in all individuals, an interindividual inconsistency of involvement with writing was observed in three areas: the lower part of the anterior limb of the left supramarginal gyrus (60% involved); the right frontal region (47%); and the right intraparietal sulcus (47%).

Facial expressions and complex IAPS pictures: Common and differential networks

Neuroimaging studies investigating emotion have commonly used two different visual stimulus formats, facial expressions of emotion or emotionally evocative scenes. However, it remains an important unanswered question whether or not these different stimulus formats entail the same processes. Facial expressions of emotion may elicit more emotion recognition/perception, and evocative pictures may elicit more direct experience of emotion. In spite of these differences, common areas of activation have been reported across different studies, but little work has investigated activations in response to the two stimulus formats in the same subjects. In this fMRI study, we compared BOLD activation patterns to facial expression of emotions and to complex emotional pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) to determine if these stimuli would activate similar or distinct brain regions. Healthy volunteers passively viewed blocks of expressive faces and IAPS pictures balanced for specific emotion (happy, sad, anger, fear, neutral), interleaved with blocks of fixation. Eye movement, reaction times, and off-line subjective ratings including discrete emotion, valence, and arousal were also recorded. Both faces and IAPS pictures activated similar structures, including the amygdala, posterior hippocampus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and visual cortex. In addition, expressive faces uniquely activated the superior temporal gyrus, insula, and anterior cingulate more than IAPS pictures, despite the faces being less arousing. For the most part, these regions were activated in response to all specific emotions; however, some regions responded only to a subset.

Neuronal correlates of theory of mind and empathy: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study in a nonverbal task

Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability to attribute mental states to others, and empathy, the ability to infer emotional experiences, are important processes in social cognition. Brain imaging studies in healthy subjects have described a brain system involving medial prefrontal cortex, superior temporal sulcus and temporal pole in ToM processing. Studies investigating networks associated with empathic responding also suggest involvement of temporal and frontal lobe regions. In this fMRI study, we used a cartoon task derived from Sarfati et al. (1997) [Sarfati, Y., Hardy-Bayle, M.C., Besche, C., Widlocher, D. 1997. Attribution of intentions to others in people with schizophrenia: a non-verbal exploration with comic strips. Schizophrenia Research 25, 199-209.]with both ToM and empathy stimuli in order to allow comparison of brain activations in these two processes. Results of 13 right-handed, healthy, male volunteers were included. Functional images were acquired using a 1.5 T Phillips Gyroscan. Our results confirmed that ToM and empathy stimuli are associated with overlapping but distinct neuronal networks. Common areas of activation included the medial prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal junction and temporal poles. Compared to the empathy condition, ToM stimuli revealed increased activations in lateral orbitofrontal cortex, middle frontal gyrus, cuneus and superior temporal gyrus. Empathy, on the other hand, was associated with enhanced activations of paracingulate, anterior and posterior cingulate and amygdala. We therefore suggest that ToM and empathy both rely on networks associated with making inferences about mental states of others. However, empathic responding requires the additional recruitment of networks involved in emotional processing. These results have implications for our understanding of disorders characterized by impairments of social cognition, such as autism and psychopathy.

Performance of cognitively impaired oncology patients and normal controls on functional MRI tasks

8023 Background: Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy have demonstrated cognitive deficits on neuropsychological evaluation and patient-reported measures. Preliminary functional neuroimaging studies have begun to identify correlates of this cognitive decline. Methods: To further examine these neurocognitive changes, 8 right-handed oncology patients (mean 54.6 years, 7/8 female) with cognitive deficits (≥1 SD below age-adjusted mean ≥3 domains on a neuropsychological battery) completed a functional MRI (fMRI). Impaired domains included cognitive efficiency (8/8), working memory (6/8), visuospatial skills (6/8), and delayed memory (5/8). Twelve right-handed cognitively normal age- and gender-matched healthy controls (mean 53.1 years, 11/12 female) completed the same fMRI procedures. The task was a non-verbal, visual n-back task, consisting of fractal stimuli with presentations organized in block design (Ragland et al., 2002). Subjects were cued to the specific task (0, 1, or 2-back) before each block. fMRI was performed on a 3 Tesla scanner and both anatomic (MPRAGE) and functional (echo planar images sensitive to BOLD contrast) images were acquired. Data were analyzed using SPM2. Images underwent standard preprocessing steps and a random effects analysis. Results: Both patients and controls were able to perform all conditions with a high degree of accuracy. A conjunction analysis for the 2-back versus 0-back conditions showed significant common areas of activation for the oncology and control groups in right frontal regions (insula, inferior and middle frontal gyri, frontal eye field, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex), midline supplementary motor cortex, and bilateral parietal cortex. Conclusions: Established patterns of brain activation associated with fMRI tasks (Ragland et al., 2002) were replicated among patients and controls. Oncology patients completed the difficult working memory task and showed apparently normal brain activations, despite cognitive impairments. Author Disclosure Employment or Leadership Consultant or Advisory Stock Ownership Honoraria Research Funding Expert Testimony Other Remuneration Ortho Biotech Ortho Biotech

The neural correlates of intentional and incidental self processing

The neuroscientific study of the ‘Self’ is just beginning to emerge. We used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate cerebral activation while subjects processed words describing personality traits and physical features, in two experiments with contrasting designs: incidental and intentional. In the first experiment (intentional self processing), subjects were presented with personality trait adjectives and made judgements as to their self descriptiveness (versus non self descriptiveness). In the second experiment (incidental self processing), subjects categorised words according to whether they described physical versus psychological attributes, while unaware that the words had been arranged in blocks according to self descriptiveness. The subjects had previously rated all words for self descriptiveness 6 weeks prior to the scanning session. A reaction time advantage was present in both experiments for self descriptive trait words, suggesting a facilitation effect. Common areas of activation for the two experiments included the left superior parietal lobe, with adjacent regions of the lateral prefrontal cortex also active in both experiments. Differential signal changes were present in the left precuneus for the intentional and the right middle temporal gyrus for the incidental experiment. The results suggest that self processing involves distinct processes and can occur on more than one cognitive level with corresponding functional neuroanatomic correlates in areas previously implicated in the awareness of one's own state.