Greater Activation In Regions Research Articles

Food appearance affects reward-related brain activity in healthy adults: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

A good appearance of food increases appetite. A new food product called iEat® resembles the appearance and softness of familiar foods. Previous studies have reported that iEat® foods increase appetite. However, the neuronal substrates underlying the increase in appetite following the observation of iEat® foods remain unknown. In the present study, the brain activity of 20 healthy adults during the visual presentation of iEat® and pureed foods and non-food objects was examined using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Compared with pureed foods and non-food objects, iEat® foods showed significantly greater activation in regions of the brain reward system, such as the amygdala, ventral striatum and orbital frontal cortex. In addition, individual differences in the activity of the left amygdala were positively correlated with subjective appetite ratings. These results suggest that the good appearance of foods, such as iEat® foods, may be useful for stimulating the appetite of patients with poor appetite.

Neural activation during emotional interference corresponds to emotion dysregulation in stressed teachers

Teacher stress and burnout has been associated with low job satisfaction, reduced emotional wellbeing, and poor student learning outcomes. Prolonged stress is associated with emotion dysregulation and has thus become a focus of stress interventions. This study examines emotional interference effects in a group of teachers suffering from high stress and to explore how individual differences in cognitive control, emotion dysregulation, and emotion recognition related to patterns of neural activation. Forty-nine teachers suffering moderate-high stress participated in an emotional counting Stroop task while their brain activity was imaged using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants viewed general or teacher specific words of either negative or neutral valence and were required to count the number of words on screen. Behavioural and neuroimaging results suggest that teachers are able to control emotional responses to negative stimuli, as no evidence of emotional interference was detected. However, patterns of neural activation revealed early shared engagement of regions involved in cognitive reappraisal during negative task conditions and unique late engagement of the hippocampus only while counting teacher-specific negative words. Further, we identified that greater emotion dysregulation was associated with increased activation of regions involved in cognitive control processes during neutral word trials. Teachers who showed slower emotion recognition performance were also found to have greater activation in regions associated with visual and word processing, specifically during the teacher specific negative word condition of the task. Future research should explore emotion regulation strategy use in teachers and utilise temporally sensitive neuroimaging techniques to further understand these findings.

Task modulates the orthographic and phonological representations in the bilateral ventral Occipitotemporal cortex.

As a key area in word reading, the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex is proposed for abstract orthographic processing, and its middle part has even been labeled as the visual word form area. Because the definition of the VWFA largely varies and the reading task differs across studies, the function of the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex in word reading is continuingly debated on whether this region is specific for orthographic processing or be involved in an interactive framework. By using representational similarity analysis (RSA), this study examined information representation in the VWFA at the individual level and the modulatory effect of reading task. Twenty-four subjects were scanned while performing the explicit (i.e., the naming task) and implicit (i.e., the perceptual task) reading tasks. Activation analysis showed that the naming task elicited greater activation in regions related to phonological processing (e.g., the bilateral prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal cortex), while the perceptual task recruited greater activation in visual cortex and default mode network (e.g., the bilateral middle frontal gyrus, angular gyrus, and the right middle temporal gyrus). More importantly, RSA also showed that task modulated information representation in the bilateral anterior occipitotemporal cortex and VWFA. Specifically, ROI-based RSA revealed enhanced orthographic and phonological representations in the bilateral anterior fusiform cortex and VWFA in the naming task relative to the perceptual task. These results suggest that lexical representation in the VWFA is influenced by the demand of phonological processing, which supports the interactive account of the VWFA.

Much Ado About Missingness: A Demonstration of Full Information Maximum Likelihood Estimation to Address Missingness in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data.

The current paper leveraged a large multi-study functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) dataset (N = 363) and a generated missingness paradigm to demonstrate different approaches for handling missing fMRI data under a variety of conditions. The performance of full information maximum likelihood (FIML) estimation, both with and without auxiliary variables, and listwise deletion were compared under different conditions of generated missing data volumes (i.e., 20, 35, and 50%). FIML generally performed better than listwise deletion in replicating results from the full dataset, but differences were small in the absence of auxiliary variables that correlated strongly with fMRI task data. However, when an auxiliary variable created to correlate r = 0.5 with fMRI task data was included, the performance of the FIML model improved, suggesting the potential value of FIML-based approaches for missing fMRI data when a strong auxiliary variable is available. In addition to primary methodological insights, the current study also makes an important contribution to the literature on neural vulnerability factors for obesity. Specifically, results from the full data model show that greater activation in regions implicated in reward processing (caudate and putamen) in response to tastes of milkshake significantly predicted weight gain over the following year. Implications of both methodological and substantive findings are discussed.

Reward impacts visual statistical learning.

Humans automatically detect and remember regularities in the visual environment-a type of learning termed visual statistical learning (VSL). Many aspects of learning from reward resemble VSL in certain respects, yet whether and how reward learning impacts VSL is largely unexamined. In two studies, we found that reward contingencies affect VSL, with high-value associated with stronger behavioral and neural signatures of such learning than low-value images. In Experiment 1, participants learned values (high or low) of images through a trial-and-error risky choice task. Unbeknownst to them, images were paired as four types-High-High, High-Low, Low-High, and Low-Low. In subsequent recognition and reward memory tests, participants chose the more familiar of two pairs (a target and a foil) and recalled the value of images. We found better recognition when the first images of pairs have high-values, with High-High pairs showing the highest recognition rate. In Experiment 2, we provided evidence that both value and statistical contingencies affected brain responses. When we compared responses between the high-value first image and the low-value first image, greater activation in regions that included inferior frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, among other regions, were found. These findings were driven by the interaction between statistically structured information and reward-the same value contrast yielded no regions for second-image contrasts and for singletons. Our results suggest that when reward information is embedded in stimulus-stimulus associations, it may alter the learning process; specifically, the higher-value first image potentially enables better memory for statistically learned pairs and reward information.

Leveraging the effector independent nature of motor imagery when it is paired with physical practice

While considered analogous to physical practice, the nature of imagery-based skill acquisition—specifically whether or not both effector independent and dependent encoding occurs through motor imagery—is not well understood. Here, motor imagery-based training was applied prior to or after physical practice-based training to probe the nature of imagery-based skill acquisition. Three groups of participants (N = 38) engaged in 10 days of training of a dart throwing task: 5 days of motor imagery prior to physical practice (MIP-PP), motor imagery following physical practice (PP-MIP), or physical practice only (PP-PP). Performance-related outcomes were assessed throughout. Brain activity was measured at three time points using fMRI (pre/mid/post-training; MIP-PP and PP-MIP groups). In contrast with physical practice, motor imagery led to changes in global versus specific aspects of the movement. Following 10 days of training, performance was greater when motor imagery preceded physical practice, although remained inferior to performance resulting from physical practice alone. Greater activation of regions that support effector dependent encoding was observed mid-, but not post-training for the PP-MIP group. Findings indicate that changes driven by motor imagery reflect effector independent encoding, providing new information regarding how motor imagery may be leveraged for skill acquisition.

Age-related differences in neural activation and functional connectivity during the processing of vocal prosody in adolescence.

The ability to recognize others' emotions based on vocal emotional prosody follows a protracted developmental trajectory during adolescence. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms supporting this maturation. The current study investigated age-related differences in neural activation during a vocal emotion recognition (ER) task. Listeners aged 8 to 19 years old completed the vocal ER task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The task of categorizing vocal emotional prosody elicited activation primarily in temporal and frontal areas. Age was associated with a) greater activation in regions in the superior, middle, and inferior frontal gyri, b) greater functional connectivity between the left precentral and inferior frontal gyri and regions in the bilateral insula and temporo-parietal junction, and c) greater fractional anisotropy in the superior longitudinal fasciculus, which connects frontal areas to posterior temporo-parietal regions. Many of these age-related differences in brain activation and connectivity were associated with better performance on the ER task. Increased activation in, and connectivity between, areas typically involved in language processing and social cognition may facilitate the development of vocal ER skills in adolescence.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging activation in response to prompts of romantically disillusioning events

AbstractTo differentiate romantic disillusionment from similar constructs of dissatisfaction and regret, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data obtained when romantically involved individuals (N = 39) were reminded of relationship events representing these emotions were analyzed. Whole‐brain activations suggested disillusionment‐linked processes not observed for dissatisfaction or regret. Compared to dissatisfying events, disillusioning ones showed greater activity in regions pertaining to evaluation, reflection, and reconciling conflicting information (e.g., anterior cingulate cortex). No regions showed significantly more activation for dissatisfying than disillusioning events. Compared to regret‐inducing events, disillusioning events showed greater activation in areas thought pertinent to detail processing and decision making (occipital fusiform and lingual gyrus). Regret‐inducing events activated regions suggesting the planning and thoughts of how one could have acted differently (e.g., prefrontal cortex).

Culture Modulates the Neural Correlates Underlying Risky Exploration.

Most research on cultural neuroscience focuses on one dimension of culture: group membership or individual orientation. However, it is especially important to examine the intersection between the two to better understand the acculturation process. To examine the role of culture in the neural correlates of risky exploration, the current study recruited 22 American and 24 Chinese international students. Participants reported on their independent self-construal, a measure defining the self in terms of emphasizing unique attributes, and underwent an functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan while completing a risk-taking task. At the group level, American (vs. Chinese) participants showed greater risky exploration on the task. Moreover, while independent self-construal was not related to American individuals’ behavioral performance and neural correlates of risky exploration, Chinese participants who reported greater independent self-construal recruited greater activation in regions of the cognitive control system [e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)] and affective system [e.g., anterior insula (AI)], which was related to greater risky exploration. Taken together, our findings suggest that culture as group membership and individual orientation may interact with each other and relate to neural systems underlying risky exploration. This study highlights the importance of studying the role of culture at both group and individual level, which is particularly critical to understand individuals as they acculturate to a new environment.

Brain moderators supporting the relationship between depressive mood and pain.

Pain and depressive mood commonly exhibit a comorbid relationship. Yet, the brain mechanisms that moderate the relationship between dysphoric mood and pain remain unknown. An exploratory analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging, behavioral, and psychophysical data was collected from a previous study in 76 healthy, nondepressed, and pain-free individuals. Participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI), a measure of negative mood/depressive symptomology, and provided pain intensity and pain unpleasantness ratings in response to noxious heat (49°C) during perfusion-based, arterial spin-labeled functional magnetic resonance imaging. Moderation analyses were conducted to determine neural mechanisms involved in facilitating the hypothesized relationship between depressive mood and pain sensitivity. Higher BDI-II scores were positively associated with pain intensity (R = 0.10; P = 0.006) and pain unpleasantness (R = 0.12; P = 0.003) ratings. There was a high correlation between pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings (r = 0.94; P < 0.001); thus, brain moderation analyses were focused on pain intensity ratings. Individuals with higher levels of depressive mood exhibited heightened sensitivity to experimental pain. Greater activation in regions supporting the evaluation of pain (ventrolateral prefrontal cortex; anterior insula) and sensory-discrimination (secondary somatosensory cortex; posterior insula) moderated the relationship between higher BDI-II scores and pain intensity ratings. This study demonstrates that executive-level and sensory-discriminative brain mechanisms play a multimodal role in facilitating the bidirectional relationship between negative mood and pain.

Enhanced Recruitment During Executive Control Processing in Cognitively Preserved Patients With Pediatric-Onset MS.

Youth and young adults with pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (MS) are vulnerable to executive dysfunction; however, some patients do not demonstrate functional deficits despite showing abnormalities on structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Cognitively intact adults with MS have shown enhanced activation patterns relative to healthy controls on working memory tasks. We aim to evaluate whether cognitively preserved pediatric-onset MS patients engage compensatory recruitment strategies to facilitate age-normative performance on a task of working memory. Twenty cognitively preserved patients (mean age=18.7±2.7 years; 15 female) and 20 age- and sex-matched controls (mean age=18.5±2.9 years; 15 female) underwent neuropsychological testing and 3.0 Tesla MRI, including structural and functional acquisitions. Patterns of activation during the Alphaspan task, a working memory paradigm with two levels of executive control demand, were examined via whole-brain and region of interest (ROI) analyses. Across all participants, lower accuracy and greater activation of regions implicated in working memory were observed during the high demand condition. MS patients demonstrated 0.21 s longer response time than controls. ROI analyses revealed enhanced activation for pediatric-onset MS patients relative to controls in the right middle frontal, left paracingulate, right supramarginal, and left superior parietal gyri during the low executive demand condition, over and above differences in response time. MS patients also demonstrated heightened activation in the right supramarginal gyrus in the high executive demand condition. Our findings suggest that pediatric-onset MS patients may engage compensatory recruitment strategies during working memory processing. (JINS, 2019, 25, 432-442).

Creative conceptual expansion: A combined fMRI replication and extension study to examine individual differences in creativity

The aims of this fMRI study were two-fold. The first objective of the study was to verify whether the findings associated with a previous fMRI study could be replicated in which a novel event-related experimental design was developed which rendered it possible to investigate the brain basis of creative conceptual expansion. The ability to widen the boundaries of conceptual structures is integral to creative idea generation, which makes conceptual expansion a core component of creative cognition. Creative conceptual expansion led to the engagement of brain regions that are known to be involved in the access, storage and relational integration of conceptual knowledge in the original study. These included the anterior inferior frontal gyrus, the temporal poles and the lateral frontal pole. These findings in relation to the brain basis of creative conceptual expansion were replicated in the current study. The second objective of this study was to evaluate the brain basis of individual differences in creative conceptual expansion. The high creative group relative to the low creative group was shown to exhibit greater activity in regions of the semantic cognition network as well as the salience network during creative conceptual expansion. The findings are discussed from the point of view of classical hypotheses about information processing biases that explain individual differences in creativity including flat associative hierarchies, defocused attention and cognitive disinhibition.

Neural responses to cues paired with methamphetamine in healthy volunteers.

Drug cues, or conditioned responses to stimuli paired with drugs, are widely believed to promote drug use. The acquisition of these conditioned responses has been well characterized in laboratory animals: neutral stimuli paired with drugs elicit conditioned responses resembling the motivational and incentive properties of the drug itself. However, few studies have examined acquisition of conditioning, or the nature of the conditioned response, in humans. In this study, we used fMRI to examine neural responses to stimuli that had been paired with methamphetamine or placebo in healthy young adults. Participants first underwent four conditioning sessions in which visual-auditory stimuli were paired with either methamphetamine (20 mg, oral) or placebo. Then on a drug-free test day, the stimuli were presented during an fMRI scan to assess neural responses to the stimuli. We hypothesized that the stimuli would elicit drug-like brain activity, especially in regions related to reward. Instead, we found that the methamphetamine-paired stimuli, compared to placebo-paired stimuli, produced greater activation in regions related to visual and auditory processing, consistent with the drug's unconditioned effects on sensory processing. This is the first study to demonstrate conditioned neural responses to drug-paired stimuli after just two pairings of methamphetamine in healthy adults. The study also illustrates that conditioned responses may develop to unexpected components of the drug's effects.

Neurological evaluation of the selection stage of metaphor comprehension in individuals with and without autism spectrum disorder

Because of their difficulties with figurative language in conversation, it is commonly thought that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not understand figurative meaning. However, recent research indicates that individuals with and without ASD are similar in the first two stages of metaphor comprehension, up to and including successful generation of the figurative meaning. In the current study, we used a sentence decision task to evaluate the subsequent stage of metaphor comprehension, the selection stage, which requires suppression/inhibition of the unintended meaning as part of selecting the intended meaning. fMRI activation and functional connectivity were used to compare the selection stage of metaphor comprehension between high-functioning individuals with ASD and carefully matched controls. Cortical and subcortical regions of interest were selected based on the basal-ganglia model of cognitive control. Compared to controls, individuals with ASD recruited greater activation in regions related to verbal memory (thalamus), semantic associations (medial temporal gyrus), and basic visual processing (middle occipital gyrus). Functional connectivity analysis revealed fewer overall connections and cortical–subcortical connections in the ASD group compared to controls. There was a novel finding of maintenance of subcortical–subcortical connectivity in the ASD group, specific to the selection condition, despite differences in cortically involved connections. Reduced cortical–subcortical connectivity in the ASD group compared to controls may reflect a more global impairment in cognitive control pathways, while consistent subcortical–subcortical connectivity may reflect systemic inflexibility or preserved subcortical function and dissociation between subcortical and cortical systems. Further investigation is required.

Neural substrates of sign language vocabulary processing in less-skilled hearing M2L2 signers: Evidence for difficult phonological movement perception

No previous research has investigated the neural correlates of vocabulary acquisition in second language learners of sign language. The present study investigated whether poor vocabulary knowledge engaged similar prefrontal lexico-semantic regions as seen in unimodal L2 learners. Behavioral improvements in vocabulary knowledge in a cohort of M2L2 learners were quantified. Results indicated that there is significant increase in vocabulary knowledge after one semester, but stabilized in the second semester. A longitudinal fMRI analysis was implemented for a subset of learners who were followed for the entire 10 months during initial sign language acquisition. The results indicated that learners who had poor sign vocabulary knowledge consistently showed greater activation in regions involved in motor simulation, salience, biological motion and spatial processing, and lexico-semantic retrieval. In conclusion, poor vocabulary knowledge requires greater engagement of modality-independent and modality-dependent regions, which could account for behavioral evidence of difficulty in visual phonology processing.

Chronic peer victimization heightens neural sensitivity to risk taking.

Although behavioral and experimental studies have shown links between victimization and antisocial behavior, the neural correlates explaining this link are relatively unknown. In the current study, we recruited adolescent girls from a longitudinal study that tracked youths' reports of peer victimization experiences annually from the second through eighth grades. Based on these reports, 46 adolescents were recruited: 25 chronically victimized and 21 nonvictimized. During a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, participants completed a risk-taking task. Chronic peer victimization was associated with greater risk-taking behavior during the task and higher levels of self-reported antisocial behavior in everyday life. At the neural level, chronically victimized girls showed greater activation in regions involved in affective sensitivity, social cognition, and cognitive control, which significantly mediated victimization group differences in self-reported antisocial behavior.

The Neuroeconomics of Tobacco Demand: An Initial Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Cigarette Cost-Benefit Decision Making in Male Smokers

How the brain processes cigarette cost-benefit decision making remains largely unknown. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this study investigated the neural correlates of decisions for cigarettes (0–10 cigarettes) at varying levels of price during a Cigarette Purchase Task (CPT) in male regular smokers (N = 35). Differential neural activity was examined between choices classified as inelastic, elastic, and suppressed demand, operationalized as consumption unaffected by cost, partially suppressed by cost, and entirely suppressed by cost, respectively. Decisions reflecting elastic demand, putatively the most effortful decisions, elicited greater activation in regions associated with inhibition and planning (e.g., middle frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus), craving and interoceptive processing (anterior insula), and conflict monitoring (e.g., anterior cingulate cortex). Exploratory examination in a harmonized dataset of both cigarette and alcohol demand (N = 59) suggested common neural activation patterns across commodities, particularly in the anterior insula, caudate, anterior cingulate, medial frontal gyrus, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Collectively, these findings provide initial validation of a CPT fMRI paradigm; reveal the interplay of brain regions associated with executive functioning, incentive salience, and interoceptive processing in cigarette decision making; and add to the literature implicating the insula as a key brain region in addiction.

Neural correlates of rumination in adolescents with remitted major depressive disorder and healthy controls

The aim of the present study was to use fMRI to examine the neural correlates of engaging in rumination among a sample of remitted depressed adolescents, a population at high risk for future depressive relapse. A rumination induction task was used to assess differences in the patterns of neural activation during rumination versus a distraction condition among 26 adolescents in remission from major depressive disorder (rMDD) and in 15 healthy control adolescents. Self-report depression and rumination, as well as clinician-rated depression, were also assessed among all participants. All of the participants recruited regions in the default mode network (DMN), including the posterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal lobe, and medial temporal gyrus, during rumination. Increased activation in these regions during rumination was correlated with increased self-report rumination and symptoms of depression across all participants. Adolescents with rMDD also exhibited greater activation in regions involved in visual, somatosensory, and emotion processing than did healthy peers. The present findings suggest that during ruminative thought, adolescents with rMDD are characterized by increased recruitment of regions within the DMN and in areas involved in visual, somatosensory, and emotion processing.

The mere green effect: An fMRI study of pro-environmental advertisements

ABSTRACTSelf-report evidence suggests that consumers prefer green products (i.e., pro-environmental) to standard products, but this is not reflected in purchase behaviors. To understand this disconnect, we exposed participants in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner to green and standard ads. After viewing each ad, participants rated liking and perceived sustainability. Ratings were more favorable for green ads than for control ads, but the functional MRI data suggested an opposite pattern—participants showed greater activation in regions associated with personal value and reward (ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum) in response to control ads relative to green ads. In addition, participants showed greater activity in these regions to the extent that they reported liking control ads, but there was no such trend for green ads. In line with a neuroeconomic account, we suggest that activity in these regions may be indexing a value signal computed during message exposure that may influence downstream purchase decisions, in contrast to self-reported evaluations that may reflect social desirability concerns absent at the point of purchase.

'Imagined guilt' vs 'recollected guilt': implications for fMRI.

Guilt is thought to maintain social harmony by motivating reparation. This study compared two methodologies commonly used to identify the neural correlates of guilt. The first, imagined guilt, requires participants to read hypothetical scenarios and then imagine themselves as the protagonist. The second, recollected guilt, requires participants to reflect on times they personally experienced guilt. In the fMRI scanner, participants were presented with guilt/neutral memories and guilt/neutral hypothetical scenarios. Contrasts confirmed a priori predictions that guilt memories, relative to guilt scenarios, were associated with significantly greater activity in regions associated with affect [anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), Caudate, Insula, orbital frontal cortex (OFC)] and social cognition [temporal pole (TP), precuneus). Similarly, results indicated that guilt memories, relative to neutral memories, were also associated with greater activity in affective (ACC, amygdala, Insula, OFC) and social cognition (mPFC, TP, precuneus, temporo-parietal junction) regions. There were no significant differences between guilt hypothetical scenarios and neutral hypothetical scenarios in either affective or social cognition regions. The importance of distinguishing between different guilt inductions inside the scanner is discussed. We offer explanations of our results and discuss ideas for future research.