scholarly journals Fronto-Parietal Interactions with Task-Evoked Functional Connectivity During Cognitive Control

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Hwang ◽  
James M. Shine ◽  
Mark D’Esposito
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Temporal Changes ◽  
Stimulus Category ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Connectivity Strength

AbstractFlexible interaction between brain regions enables neural systems to transfer and process information adaptively for goal-directed behaviors. In the current study, we investigated neural substrates that interact with task-evoked functional connectivity during cognitive control. We conducted a human fMRI study where participants selectively attended to a category of visual stimuli in the presence of competing distractors from another stimulus category. To study flexible interactions between brain regions, we performed a dynamic functional connectivity analysis to estimate temporal changes in connectivity strength between brain regions under different levels of cognitive control. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we found that cognitive control selectively enhances functional connectivity for prioritizing the processing of task-relevant information. By regressing temporal changes in connectivity strength against activity patterns elsewhere in the brain, we localized frontal and parietal regions that potentially provide top-down biasing signals for influencing, or reading information out from, task-evoked functional connectivity. Our results suggest that in addition to modulating local activity, fronto-parietal regions could also exert top-down biasing signals to influence functional connectivity between distributed brain regions.

scholarly journals Frontoparietal Activity Interacts With Task-Evoked Changes in Functional Connectivity

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 802-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Hwang ◽  
James M Shine ◽  
Mark D’Esposito
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Time Varying ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Tracking Time ◽  
Candidate Regions

Abstract Flexible interactions between brain regions enable neural systems to adaptively transfer and process information. However, the neural substrates that regulate adaptive communications between brain regions are understudied. In this human fMRI study, we investigated this issue by tracking time-varying, task-evoked changes in functional connectivity between localized occipitotemporal regions while participants performed different tasks on the same visually presented stimuli. We found that functional connectivity between ventral temporal and the primary visual regions selectively increased during the processing of task-relevant information. Further, additional task demands selectively strengthen these targeted connectivity patterns. To identify candidate regions that contribute to this increase in inter-regional coupling, we regressed the task-specific time-varying connectivity strength between primary visual and occipitotemporal regions against voxel-wise activity patterns elsewhere in the brain. This allowed us to identify a set of frontal and parietal regions whose activity increased as a function of task-evoked functional connectivity. These results suggest that frontoparietal regions may provide top-down biasing signals to influence task-specific interactions between brain regions.

scholarly journals Comparing Task-Relevant Information Across Different Methods of Extracting Functional Connectivity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Benitez Stulz ◽  
Andrea Insabato ◽  
Gustavo Deco ◽  
Matthieu Gilson ◽  
Mario Senden
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cross Validation ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Classification Performance ◽  
Phase Coherence ◽  
Brain State ◽  
Brain States

AbstractThe concept of brain states, functionally relevant large-scale activity patterns, has become popular in neuroimaging. Not all components of such patterns are equally characteristic for each brain state, but machine learning provides a possibility for extracting and comparing the structure of brain states from functional data. However, their characterization in terms of functional connectivity measures varies widely, from cross-correlation to phase coherence, and the idea that different measures provide similar or coherent information is a common assumption made in neuroimaging. Here, we compare the brain state signatures extracted from of phase coherence, pairwise covariance, correlation, regularized covariance and regularized precision for a dataset of subjects performing five different cognitive tasks. In addition, we compare the classification performance in identifying the tasks for each connectivity measure. The measures are evaluated in their ability to discriminate the five tasks with two types of cross-validation: within-subject cross-validation, which reflects the stability of the signature over time; and between-subject cross-validation, which aims at extracting signatures that generalize across subjects. Secondly, we compare the informative features (connections or links between brain regions/areas) across measures to test the assumption that similar information is obtained about brain state signatures from different connectivity measures. In our results, the different types of cross-validation give different classification performance and emphasize that functional connectivity measures on fMRI require observation windows of sufficient duration. Furthermore, we find that informative links for the classification, meaning changes between tasks that are consistent across subjects, are entirely uncorrelated between BOLD correlations and covariances. These results indicate that the corresponding FC signature can strongly differ across FC methods used and that interpretation is subject to caution in terms of subnetworks related to a task.

scholarly journals Domain-general Signals in the Cingulo-opercular Network for Visuospatial Attention and Episodic Memory

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Sestieri ◽  
Maurizio Corbetta ◽  
Sara Spadone ◽  
Gian Luca Romani ◽  
Gordon L. Shulman
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Functional Properties ◽  
Memory Search ◽  
Sensory Stimulation ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Specific Marker

We investigated the functional properties of a previously described cingulo-opercular network (CON) putatively involved in cognitive control. Analyses of common fMRI task-evoked activity during perceptual and episodic memory search tasks that differently recruited the dorsal attention (DAN) and default mode network (DMN) established the generality of this network. Regions within the CON (anterior insula/frontal operculum and anterior cingulate/presupplementary cortex) displayed sustained signals during extended periods in which participants searched for behaviorally relevant information in a dynamically changing environment or from episodic memory in the absence of sensory stimulation. The CON was activated during all phases of both tasks, which involved trial initiation, target detection, decision, and response, indicating its consistent involvement in a broad range of cognitive processes. Functional connectivity analyses showed that the CON flexibly linked with the DAN or DMN regions during perceptual or memory search, respectively. Aside from the CON, only a limited number of regions, including the lateral pFC, showed evidence of domain-general sustained activity, although in some cases the common activations may have reflected the functional-anatomical variability of domain-specific regions rather than a true domain generality. These additional regions also showed task-dependent functional connectivity with the DMN and DAN, suggesting that this feature is not a specific marker of cognitive control. Finally, multivariate clustering analyses separated the CON from other frontoparietal regions previously associated with cognitive control, indicating a unique fingerprint. We conclude that the CON's functional properties and interactions with other brain regions support a broad role in cognition, consistent with its characterization as a task control network.

scholarly journals The Human Intraparietal Sulcus Modulates Task-Evoked Functional Connectivity

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 875-887
Author(s):  
Kai Hwang ◽  
James M Shine ◽  
Dillan Cellier ◽  
Mark D’Esposito
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Intraparietal Sulcus ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Adaptive Communication ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Functional Connectivity Strength ◽  
Ventral Temporal Cortex ◽  
Cortical Regions

Abstract Past studies have demonstrated that flexible interactions between brain regions support a wide range of goal-directed behaviors. However, the neural mechanisms that underlie adaptive communication between brain regions are not well understood. In this study, we combined theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the sources of top-down biasing signals that influence task-evoked functional connectivity. Subjects viewed sequences of images of faces and buildings and were required to detect repetitions (2-back vs. 1-back) of the attended stimuli category (faces or buildings). We found that functional connectivity between ventral temporal cortex and the primary visual cortex (VC) increased during processing of task-relevant stimuli, especially during higher memory loads. Furthermore, the strength of functional connectivity was greater for correct trials. Increases in task-evoked functional connectivity strength were correlated with increases in activity in multiple frontal, parietal, and subcortical (caudate and thalamus) regions. Finally, we found that TMS to superior intraparietal sulcus (IPS), but not to primary somatosensory cortex, decreased task-specific modulation in connectivity patterns between the primary VC and the parahippocampal place area. These findings demonstrate that the human IPS is a source of top-down biasing signals that modulate task-evoked functional connectivity among task-relevant cortical regions.

scholarly journals Hyperconnectivity Between The Posterior Cingulate and Middle Frontal and Temporal Gyrus in Depression: Based On Functional Connectivity Meta-Analyses.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziqing Zhu ◽  
You Wang ◽  
Way Lau ◽  
Xinhua Wei ◽  
Yingjun Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Structural Basis ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽  
Posterior Cingulate ◽  
The Right

Abstract BackgroundDisrupted whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the posterior cingulate (PCC) has been highlighted to associate with cognitive and affective dysfunction in major depressive disorder (MDD). However, prior findings showed certain inconsistency about the RSFC of the PCC in MDD. This study aims to investigate the aberrant RSFC of the PCC in MDD using anisotropic effect-size version of seed-based d mapping (AES-SDM). MethodsWeb of Science and PubMed were searched for studies investigating PCC-based RSFC in MDD. A total of 17 studies, involving 804 patients and 724 healthy controls (HCs), fit our selection criteria. Additionally, to seek for the link between functional and structural differences, we did a meta-analysis on the studies in conjunction with Voxel-based morphology (VBM) analysis. ResultsThe PCC showed higher RSFC with the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and lower RSFC with the left superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and the left precuneus in patients with MDD than HCs. Notably, the left MTG and the left MFG were the overlapped regions of aberrant VBM and RSFC results.ConclusionsOur results indicated that the aberrant RSFC between the PCC and brain regions sub-serving cognitive control and emotional regulation in patients with MDD. And such functional alterations may have structural basis. These findings may underlie the mechanisms of deficits in cognitive control and emotional regulation of MDD.

scholarly journals T164. NETWORK CONNECTIVITY SUPPORTING REWARD LEARNING DIFFERENTIALLY DISRUPTED IN TREATMENT RESISTANT SCHIZOPHRENIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S293-S294
Author(s):  
Charlotte Horne ◽  
Lucy Vanes ◽  
Timea Szentgyorgyi ◽  
Tess Verneuil ◽  
Elias Mouchlianitis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Symptom Severity ◽  
Network Connectivity ◽  
Treatment Resistance ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Reward Learning ◽  
Treatment Resistant ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Dopaminergic Drugs ◽  
Dopaminergic Mechanism

Abstract Background It is estimated that one third of patients with schizophrenia fail to adequately respond to antipsychotic medication, termed ‘treatment-resistance’. This occurs despite adequate blockade of D2 receptors in the brain. The parsimonious options are that treatment resistance could arise through a failure of cognitive control over the dopaminergic dysfunction in the striatum; or has a different primary non-dopaminergic mechanism that isn’t targeted by current antipsychotics. Contemporary models suggest that schizophrenia is associated with reduced reward prediction errors (RPE) and consequent aberrant salience driven by increased dopamine levels that ‘drown out’ phasic signals. This causes positive symptoms and impaired reward learning. However, RPE signalling in treatment-resistant patients appears intact despite sub-optimal behavioural performance. It is therefore unclear how reward learning is impaired in these patients. Methods We investigated how reward learning is disrupted at the network level in 21 medicated treatment-responsive and 20 medicated treatment-resistant patients with schizophrenia compared with 24 healthy controls (HC). Participants learnt to associate one of two emotional faces with a reward during a reinforcement learning task in an MRI scanner. Functional MRI BOLD signal was extracted from four brain regions (fusiform cortex, amygdala, caudate and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)) activated in response to face cues and RPEs. These formed a network of interacting brain regions supporting reward learning. Dynamic Causal Modelling assessed how effective connectivity between regions in this cortico-striatal-limbic network is disrupted in each patient group compared to HC. Connectivity was also examined with respect to symptoms and salience. Finally, cognitive control and the role of glutamate were assessed by relating top-down connectivity from the ACC with glutamate levels measured from the same region of the ACC. Results In responsive patients, there was enhanced top-down connectivity from the ACC to sensory regions (fusiform and amygdala) and reduced input to the caudate compared to HC. Increased top-down connectivity was inversely correlated with symptom severity and sensory-salience. This suggests the presence of an effective compensatory mechanism for unreliable sensory information in responsive patients. Resistant patients however showed normal network connectivity compared to HC except abnormal connectivity within the ACC. This supports an alternative, non-dopaminergic mechanism disrupting reward learning in this refractory group. Increasing connectivity from ACC to caudate was related to positive symptom severity and salience in this group. Moreover, ACC glutamate levels were related to key top-down connections in HC and responsive patients but were not related to any connections in resistant patients. This suggests that glutamate may not be modulating connectivity effectively in this network to exert cognitive control and update reward predictions. Discussion In summary, differential mechanisms underlie disrupted reward learning between responsive and resistant groups. Resistant patients show similar RPE signalling and network connectivity to HC suggesting their dopaminergic functioning is intact. Impaired glutamate function may present a key mechanism that disrupts reward learning – and why dopaminergic drugs are ineffective. This finding is important for developing new drugs (e.g. glutamatergic targets) and guiding treatment strategies (e.g. giving clozapine earlier) in resistant patients. Future research probing cognitive control mechanisms and glutamate function will be useful to elucidate this putative pathology in treatment resistance.

Interhemispheric functional connectivity in anorexia and bulimia nervosa

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S551-S551
Author(s):  
R. Amodio ◽  
A. Prinster ◽  
A.M. Monteleone ◽  
F. Esposito ◽  
A. Canna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Bulimia Nervosa ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Diffusion Tensor ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Brain Hemispheres ◽  
Mri Scans

IntroductionThe functional interplay between brain hemispheres is fundamental for behavioral, cognitive and emotional control. Several pathophysiological aspects of eating disorders (EDs) have been investigated by the use of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).ObjectivesThe objective of the study was to investigate functional brain asymmetry of resting-state fMRI correlations in symptomatic patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN).AimsWe aimed at revealing whether brain regions implicated in reward, cognitive control, starvation and emotion regulation show altered inter-hemispheric functional connectivity in patients with AN and BN.MethodsUsing resting-state fMRI, voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) and regional inter-hemispheric spectral coherence (IHSC) analyses in two canonical slow frequency bands (“Slow-5”, “Slow-4”) were studied in 15AN and 13BN patients and 16 healthy controls (HC). Using T1-weighted and diffusion tensor imaging MRI scans, regional VMHC values were correlated with the left-right asymmetry of corresponding homotopic gray matter volumes and with the white matter callosal fractional anisotropy (FA).ResultsCompared to HC, AN patients exhibited reduced VMHC in cerebellum, insula and precuneus, while BN patients showed reduced VMHC in dorso-lateral prefrontal and orbito-frontal cortices. The regional IHSC analysis highlighted that the inter-hemispheric functional connectivity was higher in the ‘Slow-5′Band in all regions except the insula. No group differences in left-right structural asymmetries and in VMHC vs callosal FA correlations were found.ConclusionsThese anomalies indicate that AN and BN, at least in their acute phase, are associated with a loss of inter-hemispheric connectivity in regions implicated in self-referential, cognitive control and reward processing.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

scholarly journals Resting-state functional connectivity of brain regions involved in cognitive control, motivation, and reward is enhanced in obese females

2014 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 524-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam A Lips ◽  
Marjolein A Wijngaarden ◽  
Jeroen van der Grond ◽  
Mark A van Buchem ◽  
Gerrit H de Groot ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽  
Control Motivation

scholarly journals Top-down alteration of functional connectivity within the sensorimotor network in focal dystonia

Neurology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 92 (16) ◽  
pp. e1843-e1851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Battistella ◽  
Kristina Simonyan
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Causal Modeling ◽  
Focal Dystonia ◽  
Spasmodic Dysphonia ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Sensorimotor Network ◽  
Dystonic Tremor

ObjectivesTo determine the directionality of regional interactions and influences of one region on another within the functionally abnormal sensorimotor network in isolated focal dystonia.MethodsA total of 40 patients with spasmodic dysphonia with and without dystonic tremor of voice and 35 healthy controls participated in the study. Independent component analysis (ICA) of resting-state fMRI was used to identify 4 abnormally coupled brain regions within the functional sensorimotor network in all patients compared to controls. Follow-up spectral dynamic causal modeling (DCM) estimated regional effective connectivity between patients and controls and between patients with spasmodic dysphonia with and without dystonic tremor of voice to expand the understanding of symptomatologic variability associated with this disorder.ResultsICA found abnormally reduced functional connectivity of the left inferior parietal cortex, putamen, and bilateral premotor cortex in all patients compared to controls, pointing to a largely overlapping pathophysiology of focal dystonia and dystonic tremor. DCM determined that the disruption of the sensorimotor network was both top-down, involving hyperexcitable parieto-putaminal influence, and interhemispheric, involving right-to-left hyperexcitable premotor coupling in all patients compared to controls. These regional alterations were associated with their abnormal self-inhibitory function when comparing patients with spasmodic dysphonia patients with and without dystonic tremor of voice.ConclusionsAbnormal hyperexcitability of premotor-parietal-putaminal circuitry may be explained by altered information transfer between these regions due to underlying deficient connectivity. Identification of brain regions involved in processing of sensorimotor information in preparation for movement execution suggests that complex network disruption is staged well before the dystonic behavior is produced by the primary motor cortex.

scholarly journals The Role of a Right Fronto-Parietal Network in Cognitive Control

2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 286-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Fassbender ◽  
C. Simoes-Franklin ◽  
K. Murphy ◽  
R. Hester ◽  
J. Meaney ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Control Process ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Color Changes ◽  
Prepotent Response ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
The Right

Seemingly distinct cognitive tasks often activate similar anatomical networks. For example, the right fronto-parietal cortex is active across a wide variety of paradigms suggesting that these regions may subserve a general cognitive function. We utilized fMRI and a GO/NOGO task consisting of two conditions, one with intermittent unpredictive “cues-to-attend” and the other without any “cues-to-attend,” in order to investigate areas involved in inhibition of a prepotent response and top-down attentional control. Sixteen subjects (5 male, ages ranging from 20 to 30 years) responded to an alternating sequence of the letters X and Y and withheld responding when the alternating sequence was broken (e.g., when X followed an X). Cues were rare stimulus font-color changes, which were linked to a simple instruction to attend to the task at hand. We hypothesized that inhibitions and cues, despite requiring quite different responses from subjects, might engage similar top-down attentional control processes and would thus share a common network of anatomical substrates. Although inhibitions and cues activated a number of distinct brain regions, a similar network of right dorsolateral prefrontal and inferior parietal regions was active for both. These results suggest that this network, commonly activated for response inhibition, may subserve a more general cognitive control process involved in allocating top-down attentional resources.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document