Functional connectivity of the human premotor and motor cortex explored with TMS.
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The molecular topology model and discriminant analysis have been applied to the prediction and QSAR interpretation of some pharmacological properties of hypolipaemic drugs using multivariable regression equations with their statistical parameters. Regression analysis showed that the molecular topology model predicts these properties. The corresponding stability (cross-validation) studies done on the selected prediction models confirmed the goodness of the fits. The method used for hypolipaemic activity selection was a linear discriminant analysis (LDA). We make use of the pharmacological distribution diagrams (PDDs) as a visualizing technique for the identification and design of new hypolipaemic agents.
In this study, we examined the relationship between cortical coupling, reflected in event related partial coherence (ERPC) and cognitive processing speed while subjects performed a set of Raven's Progressive Matrices (RPM), a task used to measure IQ. Fifty-five participants (29 males) performed a computerized version of the RPM where they were required to identify the shape (probe) that is consistent with a matrix of displayed shapes. Participants indicated a match or non-match by pressing a micro-switch with either the right or left hand. The steady state visually evoked potential (SSVEP) was elicited by a 13 Hz uniform visual flicker superimposed over the visual fields and the SSVEP event-related coherence (SSVEP-ERPC) calculated for all 2016 unique electrode pairs. The linear correlation between SSVEP-ERPC and processing speed (the inverse of reaction time) was calculated for all electrode pairs for all time points during the 3 sec interval that the probes were on the screen. Using correlation coeffident thresholds corresponding to p=0.001 we identified those electrode pairs where SSVEP-ERPC or neural synchronization was significantly correlated with processing speed. At a point 0.8 sec before the appearance of the probe we observed that the synchronization between specific prefrontal, frontal and central sites was correlated with processing speed. We suggest that this relationship may reflect the efficiency of working memory processes and speed of information processing.
Rats were trained to self-stimulate for trains of cathodal pulses delivered via electrodes placed in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and caudate-putamen (CPu). When the pulses were delivered via 9 ipsilateral MPFC and CPu sites alternately, summation varied from 13% to 40%. However, the overall summation for 2 contralateral MPFC-CPu pairs was 5%, thus indicating a greater integration of ipsilateral than contralateral reward signals. When the interval between alternate pulses decreased in 4 of the 9 ipsilateral pairs, the summation also decreased, an outcome consistent with collision of action potentials passing between the MPFC and CPu sites. The size of the collision effect ranged from 15% to 33%. Estimates of conduction velocity varied between 0.4 to 5.4 m/s, with a 1.7 m/s average. According to these values, the neurons connecting the MPFC and CPu self-stimulation sites appear to be slower than the ones that have been shown to link reward fibers that course between posterior brain regions.
In the cat primary visual cortex, neurons are classified into the two main categories of simple cells and complex cells based on their response properties. According to the hierarchical model, complex receptive fields derive from convergent inputs of simple cells with similar orientation preferences. This model received strong support from anatomical studies showing that many complex cells lie within the range of layer IV simple-cell axons but outside the range of most thalamic axons. Physiological evidence for the model, however, has remained elusive. Here we demonstrate that layer IV simple cells and layer II and III complex cells show correlated firing consistent with monosynaptic connections. As expected from the hierarchical model, all connections were in the direction from the simple cell to the complex cell, most frequently between cells with similar orientation preferences.
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Using [15O]water PET and a previously well studied motor activation task, repetitive finger-to-thumb opposition, we compared the spatial activation patterns produced by (1) global normalization and intersubject averaging of paired-image subtractions, (2) the mean differences of ANCOVA-adjusted voxels in Statistical Parametric Mapping, (3) ANCOVA-adjusted voxels followed by principal component analysis (PCA), (4) ANCOVA-adjustment of mean image volumes (mean over subjects at each time point) followed by F-masking and PCA, and (5) PCA with Scaled Subprofile Model pre- and postprocessing. All data analysis techniques identified large positive focal activations in the contralateral sensorimotor cortex and ipsilateral cerebellar cortex, with varying levels of activation in other parts of the motor system, e.g., supplementary motor area, thalamus, putamen; techniques 1-4 also produced extensive negative areas. The activation signal of interest constitutes a very small fraction of the total nonrandom signal in the original dataset, and the exact choice of data preprocessing steps together with a particular analysis procedure have a significant impact on the identification and relative levels of activated regions. The challenge for the future is to identify those preprocessing algorithms and data analysis models that reproducibly optimize the identification and quantification of higher-order sensorimotor and cognitive responses.
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The aim of this paper is to test a technique called partial directed coherence (PDC) and its modification (squared PDC; sPDC) for the estimation of human cortical connectivity by means of simulation study, in which both PDC and sPDC were studied by analysis of variance. The statistical analysis performed returned that both PDC and sPDC are able to estimate correctly the imposed connectivity patterns when data exhibit a signal-to-noise ratio of at least 3 and a length of at least 27 s of nonconsecutive recordings at 250 Hz of sampling rate, equivalent, more generally, to 6750 data samples.
Crossmodal plasticity occurs when loss of input in one sensory modality leads to reorganization in brain representations of other sensory modalities. In congenital blindness the visual cortex becomes responsive to somatosensory input such as occurs during Braille reading. The route by which somatosensory information reaches the visual cortex is not known. Here, we used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to probe the connection between primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and early visual cortex (V1 and neighboring areas), combining rTMS with positron emission tomography (PET). We applied stimulation over S1 in sighted, early blind and late blind individuals. Baseline regional cerebral blood flow in occipital cortex was highest in early blind and lowest in late blind individuals. Only the early blind group showed significant activation of early visual areas when rTMS was delivered over S1. This activation was significantly higher in early than in late blind, but not relative to sighted controls. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that tactile information may reach early visual areas in early blind humans through cortico-cortical pathways, possibly supporting enhanced tactile information processing.
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Lesions of the entorhinal cortex in neonatal rats cause the commissural projections to the dentate gyrus to spread from their normal location in the inner molecular layer into the outer molecular layer, a region normally occupied by afferents from the entorhinal cortex. These lesions also cause the short-latency response to commissural stimulation to spread into the outer molecular layer, a result suggesting that these abnormally located connections are operative.
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1. It has been suggested from mathematical models and in vivo experiments in the visual cortex that periods of temporal covariance of pre- and postsynaptic activity can lead to a potentiation or depression of synaptic efficacy. We directly tested this hypothesis in vitro in the guinea pig and cat visual cortex. 2. Intracellular recordings were made in brain slices from 63 neurons in layers 2-4 in bicuculline-free artificial cerebrospinal fluid. Twenty-nine cells (n = 25 from pigmented guinea pigs and 4 from cats) were taken through a complete series of control and test protocols to evaluate the covariance hypothesis. Some (n = 7) cells that were taken through the complete experimental protocols were also filled intracellularly with biocytin. Compound postsynaptic potentials (PSPs) were evoked by low-frequency (0.2-1.0 Hz), weak (20% of threshold intensity) stimulation of the cortical white matter and/or intracortical sites in layers 2-3. 3. In one series of experiments we paired PSPs with imposed coincident depolarizing (S+) or hyperpolarizing (S-) pulses (mean +/- 2.8 nA for 50-80 ms) of the postsynaptic neuron (n = 54 PSPs; > 1 pairing protocol was often run on an individual cell). Controls consisted of analyzing the same number of S+ or S- pairings but with long temporal delays [called fixed delay pairings (FDPs)] between the test pathway stimulation and the onset of the intracellular current pulse (120 ms) and pseudopairings (PP) consisting of evoked PSPs and delivery of intracellular current injection pulses in a phase-independent manner. Twenty-one of 54 PSPs subjected to pairing were significantly modified by the protocol. The S+ protocol significantly (P < 0.05, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test) increased the peak amplitudes of 8 of 22 PSPs (+20 to +55%); the S- protocol significantly decreased the peak amplitudes of 13 of 32 PSPs (-15 to -88%), whereas the FDP and PP protocols generally did not cause significant changes in the PSPs (0% and 4%, respectively). Significant changes in PSPs persisted in most cases for 10-20 min. 4. Another series of experiments consisted of evaluating for the same cell the effects of evoking a PSP from one stimulation site without concomitant postsynaptic activation and alternately evoking a PSP from the other stimulation site with S+ or S- pairing (n = 25 PSPs). Only the paired pathway showed the predicted effects on the PSP (S+ pairing causing an increase in peak PSP amplitude and S- pairing causing a decrease in peak PSP amplitude).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
1. The tibial and sural nerves in cats were cut, anastomosed to their distal stumps, and allowed to regenerate for 3-17.5 mo. In the terminal acute experiment, individual afferents were impaled in the dorsal root ganglion to study their receptive field properties, somatic spike parameters, and spinal projections using cord dorsum potential (CDP) measurements. Properties of the CDPs provided evidence on whether the afferent fibers were originally proprioceptive or cutaneous (rapidly or slowly adapting). 2. Fibers with the largest conduction velocity were selectively slowly adapting, suggesting that large muscle afferents maintained their adaptation properties regardless of the peripheral structure innervated. Similarly, the relationship of somatic spike configuration to mechanical threshold was largely normal. Cells with narrow spikes innervated low-threshold mechanoreceptors, whereas cells with broad spikes and an inflection on the descending limb innervated high-threshold mechanoreceptors. 3. Spikes with intermediate properties were observed in some cells that innervated low-threshold mechanoreceptors in the periphery. These were classified as "hybrid" spikes. 4. The largest CDPs were evoked by afferents classified as having originally been cutaneous fibers, regardless of whether they had reinnervated cutaneous or subcutaneous receptors. Fibers classified as has having originally been proprioceptive afferents produced much smaller CDPs; however, these afferents never produce CDPs in intact preparations. Afferents nonresponsive to peripheral stimulation, classified putatively as having been cutaneous, also evoked small CDPs. 5. Fibers classified as putatively cutaneous or proprioceptive could reinnervate foreign target tissue (subcutaneous tissue or skin, respectively), but a propensity to reinnervate the original target tissue was observed. 6. Among putative cutaneous afferents, those with rostrocaudal CDP distributions somatotopically correct for the location of their receptive fields evoked the largest CDPs regardless of the peripheral tissue innervated. 7. We conclude that receptive field properties (adaptation, mechanical threshold) of regenerated afferents are well matched with the electrophysiological properties of the soma and axon. The properties of the central projections of these afferents are not as well matched with their peripheral receptor properties. This is discussed in terms of the plasticity of the central projections of axotomized afferents.