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PubMed2005

Role of prefrontal and anterior cingulate regions in decision-making processes shared by memory and nonmemory tasks.

In the episodic retrieval (ER) domain, activations in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) are often attributed to postretrieval monitoring. Yet, right DLPFC activations are also frequently found during nonmemory tasks. To investigate the role of this region across different cognitive functions, we directly compared brain activity during ER and visual perception (VP) using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. In the ER task, participants decided whether words were old or new, whereas in the VP task, they decided which of the two colored screen areas was larger. In both tasks, each decision was followed by a confidence rating. The main finding was that right DLPFC (Brodmann area 46/10) activity was greater for low- than for high-confidence decisions in both tasks, demonstrating a general role in decision making. Even when reaction times (RTs) were included in the model, confidence remained the significant predictor of activity, suggesting that right DLPFC is involved in discontinuous evaluation rather than in continuous monitoring. In contrast, activity in anterior cingulate cortex was not only greater for low-confidence decisions but also increased with RT, reflecting a role in continuous conflict monitoring. Overall, the results demonstrate how direct cross-function comparisons clarify the generality and specificity of the functions of various brain regions.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of discourse coherence in typically developing children.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a previously validated activation paradigm, we investigated the neural networks involved in detecting discourse coherence in a sample of typically developing children. Study participants listened to short question-answer dialogues and determined whether the answers made sense. Consistent with prior adult findings, when this decision involved an implicit appraisal of the conversation logic, frontotemporal activity was strongly left lateralized. In contrast, when this determination involved detecting a change in the conversation topic, activity in frontotemporal regions was bilateral, with a right hemisphere bias. Despite behavioral performance differences, children and adults showed remarkably similar activation profiles when making sense of conversation, indicating that the neural architecture subserving this fundamental communicative function is established relatively early during normal development.

Cerebral Cortex↗
PubMed2005

Neural correlates of symbolic number processing in children and adults.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined developmental differences in the functional neuroanatomy underlying symbolic number processing. Twelve adults and 12 children had to judge the relative magnitude of two single-digit Arabic numerals. We investigated which brain areas were significantly (P<0.005, uncorrected) more activated during processing of number pairs with small relative to large numerical distances. In the adult group, symbolic distance modulated bilateral parietal regions. In contrast, the group of children primarily engaged frontal regions. We conclude that the functional neuroanatomy underlying symbolic numerical magnitude processing undergoes an ontogenetic shift towards greater parietal engagement. This change may reflect maturation of underlying representations and increasing automaticity in mapping between numerical symbols and the magnitudes they represent.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Aging and attenuated processing robustness. Evidence from cognitive and sensorimotor functioning.

BACKGROUND: Within-person, across-time variations in processes and performance are intrinsic to all aspects of human functioning. OBJECTIVE: This article starts with a brief taxonomy of intraindividual dynamics. There are adaptive as well as non-adaptive types of intraindividual variations that unfold with different degrees of reversibility on different time scales and involve either single, or systems of, functions. METHODS: Empirical findings regarding aging and a specific type of intraindividual variation, namely attenuated processing robustness, are then presented with respect to cognitive and sensorimotor functioning. RESULTS: In both domains of functioning, old adults exhibit less robust functioning with a greater amount of week-to-week, day-to-day, or trial-by-trial fluctuations in their cognitive, walking, and postural control performances. CONCLUSION: Currently, the causes for the attenuation of processing robustness in cognitive and sensorimotor functioning are not well understood. Neurocomputational models are useful tools for exploring the tripartite relationships between the aging of neural information-processing fidelity, and cognitive, and sensorimotor processes.

Aging↗
PubMedDate not supplied

How would you feel versus how do you think she would feel? A neuroimaging study of perspective-taking with social emotions.

Perspective-taking is a complex cognitive process involved in social cognition. This positron emission tomography (PET) study investigated by means of a factorial design the interaction between the emotional and the perspective factors. Participants were asked to adopt either their own (first person) perspective or the (third person) perspective of their mothers in response to situations involving social emotions or to neutral situations. The main effect of third-person versus first-person perspective resulted in hemodynamic increase in the medial part of the superior frontal gyrus, the left superior temporal sulcus, the left temporal pole, the posterior cingulate gyrus, and the right inferior parietal lobe. A cluster in the postcentral gyrus was detected in the reverse comparison. The amygdala was selectively activated when subjects were processing social emotions, both related to self and other. Interaction effects were identified in the left temporal pole and in the right postcentral gyrus. These results support our prediction that the frontopolar, the somatosensory cortex, and the right inferior parietal lobe are crucial in the process of self/other distinction. In addition, this study provides important building blocks in our understanding of social emotion processing and human empathy.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Reading in a regular orthography: an FMRI study investigating the role of visual familiarity.

In order to separate the cognitive processes associated with phonological encoding and the use of a visual word form lexicon in reading, it is desirable to compare the processing of words presented in a visually familiar form with words in a visually unfamiliar form. Japanese Kana orthography offers this possibility. Two phonologically equivalent but visually dissimilar syllabaries allow the writing of, for example, foreign loanwords in two ways, only one of which is visually familiar. Familiarly written words, unfamiliarly written words, and pseudowords were presented in both Kana syllabaries (yielding six conditions in total) to participants during an fMRI measurement with a silent articulation task (Experiment 1) and a phonological lexical decision task (Experiment 2) using an event-related design. Consistent over two experimental tasks, the three different stimulus types (familiar, unfamiliar, and pseudoword) were found to activate selectively different brain regions previously associated with phonological encoding and word retrieval or meaning. Compatible with the predictions of the dual-route model for reading, pseudowords and visually unfamiliar words, which have to be read using phonological assembly, caused an increase in brain activity in left inferior frontal regions (BA 44/47), as compared to visually familiar words. Visually familiar and unfamiliar words were found to activate a range of areas associated with lexico-semantic processing more strongly than pseudowords, such as the left and right temporo-parietal region (BA 39/40), a region in the left middle/inferior temporal gyrus (BA 20/21), and the posterior cingulate (BA 31).

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Emotional and temporal aspects of situation model processing during text comprehension: an event-related fMRI study.

Language comprehension in everyday life requires the continuous integration of prior discourse context and general world knowledge with the current utterance or sentence. In the neurolinguistic literature, these so-called situation model building processes have been ascribed to the prefrontal cortex or to the right hemisphere. In this study, we use whole-head event-related fMRI to directly map the neural correlates of narrative comprehension in context. While being scanned using a spin-echo sequence, 20 participants listened to 32 short stories, half of which contained globally inconsistent information. The inconsistencies concerned either temporal or chronological information or the emotional status of the protagonist. Hearing an inconsistent word elicited activation in the right anterior temporal lobe. The comparison of different information aspects revealed activation in the left precuneus and a bilateral frontoparietal network for chronological information. Emotional information elicited activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the extended amygdaloid complex. In addition, the integration of inconsistent emotional information engaged the dorsal frontomedial cortex (Brodmann's area 8/9), whereas the integration of inconsistent temporal information required the lateral prefrontal cortex bilaterally. These results indicate that listening to stories can elicit activation reflecting content-specific processes. Furthermore, updating of the situation model is not a unitary process but it also depends on the particular requirements of the text. The right hemisphere contributes to language processing in context, but equally important are the left medial and bilateral prefrontal cortices.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1979

Intrapsychic structural effects of psychiatric research.

The authors observed that many psychotic patients on a clinical/research ward incorporated various aspects of research organization into their own evolving intrapsychic structures. This process had either beneficial or deleterious clinical effects, depending on the attributes of the research and the specific mental functions to which these attributes became attached. The observations resulted in the development of a set of recommendations for maximizing the therapeutic usefulness of this phenomenon and minimizing its countertherapeutic drawbacks.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2006

Cerebellar lesions in tuberous sclerosis complex: neurobehavioral and neuroimaging correlates.

We assessed the structural and functional imaging features of cerebellar lesions and their neurobehavioral correlates in a large cohort of patients with tuberous sclerosis complex. A consecutive series of 78 patients with tuberous sclerosis complex underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) studies with [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) and alpha-[(11)C]methyl-l-tryptophan (AMT) as part of their evaluation for epilepsy surgery. Neurobehavioral assessment included the Gilliam Autism Rating Scales (GARS) and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS). Twenty-one patients (27%) had cerebellar lesions (10 boys; mean age 9 +/- 8 years; 9 had right-sided, 10 had left-sided, and 2 had bilateral cerebellar lesions). The lesions showed decreased glucose metabolism (0.79 +/- 0.10) and increased (1.04 +/- 0.10) AMT uptake compared with the normal (nonlesional) cerebellar cortex. Comparisons between patients with (n = 20) and without (n = 57) a cerebellar lesion on neurobehavioral functioning, controlling for the number and location of cortical tubers, revealed that the cerebellar lesion group had higher overall autistic symptomatology. Within-group analyses of the cerebellar lesion group revealed that children with right-sided cerebellar lesions had higher social isolation and communicative and developmental disturbance compared with children with left-sided cerebellar lesions. The side of the cerebellar lesion was not related to adaptive behavior functioning. These findings provide additional empiric support for a role of the cerebellum in autistic symptomatology. Further investigation of the potential role of the right cerebellum in autism, particularly with regard to the dentatothalamofrontal circuit, is warranted.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Human brain language processing areas identified by functional magnetic resonance imaging using a lexical decision task.

The purpose of this study was to validate a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm to activate both anterior and posterior language areas while collecting accuracy and reaction time data on subjects' performance. The paradigm was based on alternating graphemic and lexical decision tasks. In line with the classical model of language organisation, based on lesion data, and with the results of previous neuroimaging studies, cortical activation associated with lexical decision-making was strongly lateralised to the left hemisphere and involved a network of regions in the frontal, temporal and parietal lobes. Single subject analysis demonstrated that the activation paradigm we propose is suitable for detecting language processing areas in humans for clinical studies.

Adult↗

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