scholarly journals Cortical processing of breathing perceptions in the athletic brain

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia K. Faull ◽  
Pete J. Cox ◽  
Kyle T. S. Pattinson
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Chronic Respiratory Disease ◽  
Endurance Athletes ◽  
7 Tesla ◽  
Delay Conditioning ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Attention Networks ◽  
Primary Sensorimotor Cortex ◽  
Brain Processing ◽  
Future Work

AbstractAthletes regularly endure large increases in ventilation, and accompanying perceptions of breathlessness. While breathing perceptions often correlate poorly with objective measures of lung function in both health and clinical populations, we have previously demonstrated closer matching between subjective breathlessness and changes in ventilation in endurance athletes, suggesting that athletes may be more accurate during respiratory interoception. To better understand the link between exercise and breathlessness, we sought to identify the mechanisms by which the brain processing of respiratory perception might be optimised in athletes.Twenty endurance athletes and 20 sedentary controls underwent 7 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging. Inspiratory resistive loading induced conscious breathing perceptions (breathlessness), and a delay-conditioning paradigm was employed to evoke preceding periods of anticipation. Athletes demonstrated anticipatory brain activity that positively correlated with resulting breathing perceptions within key interoceptive areas, such as the thalamus, insula and primary sensorimotor cortices, which was negatively correlated in sedentary controls. Athletes also exhibited greater connectivity between interoceptive attention networks and primary sensorimotor cortex. These functional differences in athletic brains suggest that exercise may optimise processing of respiratory sensations. Future work may probe whether these brain mechanisms are harnessed when exercise is employed to treat breathlessness within chronic respiratory disease.

scholarly journals A novel automated autism spectrum disorder detection system

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Lih Oh ◽  
V. Jahmunah ◽  
N. Arunkumar ◽  
Enas W. Abdulhay ◽  
Raj Gururajan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Developmental Disorder ◽  
Detection System ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Nonlinear Features ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors ◽  
Future Work

AbstractAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that begins early in childhood and lasts throughout a person’s life. Autism is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Lack of social interaction, communication problems, and a limited range of behaviors and interests are possible characteristics of autism in children, alongside other symptoms. Electroencephalograms provide useful information about changes in brain activity and hence are efficaciously used for diagnosis of neurological disease. Eighteen nonlinear features were extracted from EEG signals of 40 children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and 37 children with no diagnosis of neuro developmental disorder children. Feature selection was performed using Student’s t test, and Marginal Fisher Analysis was employed for data reduction. The features were ranked according to Student’s t test. The three most significant features were used to develop the autism index, while the ranked feature set was input to SVM polynomials 1, 2, and 3 for classification. The SVM polynomial 2 yielded the highest classification accuracy of 98.70% with 20 features. The developed classification system is likely to aid healthcare professionals as a diagnostic tool to detect autism. With more data, in our future work, we intend to employ deep learning models and to explore a cloud-based detection system for the detection of autism. Our study is novel, as we have analyzed all nonlinear features, and we are one of the first groups to have uniquely developed an autism (ASD) index using the extracted features.

Influence of trait anxiety on brain activity during the acquisition and extinction of aversive conditioning

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Barrett ◽  
J. L. Armony
Keyword(s):  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Conditioned Response ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Aversive Conditioning ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Subgenual Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anxiety Response ◽  
Echo Planar

BackgroundWe examined how individual differences in trait anxiety (TA) influence the neural responses associated with the acquisition and extinction of anticipatory anxiety elicited through a context conditioning paradigm, with particular focus on the amygdala and the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC).MethodDuring two sessions of echo-planar functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 18 healthy volunteers completed a decision-making task with two randomly alternating 28-s to 32-s background screen colour blocks. One of the colours was associated with the presentation of an aversive noise (CTX+) and the other colour was ‘safe’ (CTX−). In the first session (Acquisition), 33% of CTX+ colour blocks were paired with noise and in the second session (Extinction) no noise was presented.ResultsThe amygdala displayed an increased response to CTX+ compared to CTX− colour blocks during the Acquisition and Extinction sessions and the ACC displayed an increased response to CTX+ compared to CTX− colour blocks during Extinction only. In addition, a greater conditioned response (CTX+ minus CTX−) was observed in the ACC when comparing the Extinction and Acquisition sessions. Correlation analyses further showed that higher levels of TA were associated with a higher conditioned response in the amygdala during Extinction as well as a greater differential conditioned response (i.e. Extinction>Acquisition) in the ACC.ConclusionsOur results support the idea that individuals with high levels of anxiety-relevant traits and vulnerable to developing an anxiety disorder display a more resilient anxiety response during extinction that is characterized by hyper-responsivity in the amygdala.

scholarly journals Change Is Good for the Brain: Activity Diversity and Cognitive Functioning Across Adulthood

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soomi Lee ◽  
Susan T Charles ◽  
David M Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Executive Functioning ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Work Time ◽  
Activity Data ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Increased Activity ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Cognitive Data

Abstract Objectives Participating in a variety of daily activities (i.e., activity diversity) requires people to adjust to a variety of situations and engage in a greater diversity of behaviors. These experiences may, in turn, enhance cognitive functioning. This study examined associations between activity diversity and cognitive functioning across adulthood. Method Activity diversity was defined as the breadth and evenness of participation in seven common daily activity domains (e.g., paid work, time with children, leisure, physical activities, volunteering). Participants from the National Survey of Daily Experiences (NSDE: N = 732, Mage = 56) provided activity data during eight consecutive days at Wave 1 (W1) and Wave 2 (W2) 10 years apart. They also provided cognitive data at W2. Results Greater activity diversity at W2 was associated with higher overall cognitive functioning and higher executive functioning at W2. Individuals who increased activity diversity from W1 to W2 also exhibited higher scores in overall cognitive functioning and executive functioning at W2. Overall cognitive functioning, executive functioning, and episodic memory were better in those who had higher activity diversity at both waves, or increased activity diversity from W1 to W2, compared to those who had lower activity diversity or decreased activity diversity over time. Discussion Activity diversity is important for cognitive health in adulthood. Future work can study the directionality between activity diversity and cognitive functioning and underlying social and neurological mechanisms for these associations.

scholarly journals Temporal circuit of macroscale dynamic brain activity supports human consciousness

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. eaaz0087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zirui Huang ◽  
Jun Zhang ◽  
Jinsong Wu ◽  
George A. Mashour ◽  
Anthony G. Hudetz
Keyword(s):  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
Attention Networks ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Dorsal Attention Network ◽  
Brain States

The ongoing stream of human consciousness relies on two distinct cortical systems, the default mode network and the dorsal attention network, which alternate their activity in an anticorrelated manner. We examined how the two systems are regulated in the conscious brain and how they are disrupted when consciousness is diminished. We provide evidence for a “temporal circuit” characterized by a set of trajectories along which dynamic brain activity occurs. We demonstrate that the transitions between default mode and dorsal attention networks are embedded in this temporal circuit, in which a balanced reciprocal accessibility of brain states is characteristic of consciousness. Conversely, isolation of the default mode and dorsal attention networks from the temporal circuit is associated with unresponsiveness of diverse etiologies. These findings advance the foundational understanding of the functional role of anticorrelated systems in consciousness.

scholarly journals Understanding the brain by controlling neural activity

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1677) ◽  
pp. 20140201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Krug ◽  
C. Daniel Salzman ◽  
Scott Waddell
Keyword(s):  
Brain Function ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Clinical Intervention ◽  
Technical Developments ◽  
Control Brain ◽  
Electrical Devices ◽  
Behavioural Experiments ◽  
Brain Processing ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Stimulation Of

Causal methods to interrogate brain function have been employed since the advent of modern neuroscience in the nineteenth century. Initially, randomly placed electrodes and stimulation of parts of the living brain were used to localize specific functions to these areas. Recent technical developments have rejuvenated this approach by providing more precise tools to dissect the neural circuits underlying behaviour, perception and cognition. Carefully controlled behavioural experiments have been combined with electrical devices, targeted genetically encoded tools and neurochemical approaches to manipulate information processing in the brain. The ability to control brain activity in these ways not only deepens our understanding of brain function but also provides new avenues for clinical intervention, particularly in conditions where brain processing has gone awry.

scholarly journals The Effect of Media Professionalization on Cognitive Neurodynamics During Audiovisual Cuts

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celia Andreu-Sánchez ◽  
Miguel Ángel Martín-Pascual ◽  
Agnès Gruart ◽  
José María Delgado-García
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Blink Rate ◽  
Eeg Signals ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Media Professionals ◽  
Brain Processing ◽  
Recurring Tasks

Experts apply their experience to the proper development of their routine activities. Their acquired expertise or professionalization is expected to help in the development of those recurring tasks. Media professionals spend their daily work watching narrative contents on screens, so learning how they manage visual perception of those contents could be of interest in an increasingly audiovisual society. Media works require not only the understanding of the storytelling, but also the decoding of the formal rules and presentations. We recorded electroencephalographic (EEG) signals from 36 participants (18 media professionals and 18 non-media professionals) while they were watching audiovisual contents, and compared their eyeblink rate and their brain activity and connectivity. We found that media professionals decreased their blink rate after the cuts, suggesting that they can better manage the loss of visual information that blinks entail by sparing them when new visual information is being presented. Cuts triggered similar activation of basic brain processing in the visual cortex of the two groups, but different processing in medial and frontal cortical areas, where media professionals showed a lower activity. Effective brain connectivity occurred in a more organized way in media professionals–possibly due to a better communication between cortical areas that are coordinated for decoding new visual content after cuts.

scholarly journals Complex of global functional network as the core of consciousness

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keiichi Onoda
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic System ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Posterior Part ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Attention Networks ◽  
The Core ◽  
Hierarchical Partition ◽  
Brain Fmri ◽  
The Brain

Finding the neural basis of consciousness is a challenging issue, and it is still inconclusive where the core of consciousness is distributed in the brain. The global neuronal workspace theory (GNWT) emphasizes the role of the frontoparietal regions, whereas the integrated information theory (IIT) argues that the posterior part of the brain is the core of consciousness. IIT has proposed “main complex” as the core of consciousness in a dynamic system, which is a set of elements that the information loss in a hierarchical partition approach is the largest among that of all its supersets and subsets. However, no experimental study has reported the core of consciousness using the main complex for actual brain activity. This study estimated the main complex of brain dynamics using a functional MRI. The whole-brain fMRI data of eight conditions (seven tasks and a rest state) were divided into multiple elements based on network atlases, and the main complex of the dynamic system was estimated for each condition. It is assumed that, if there is a set of elements in the complex that are common to all conditions, the set is likely to contain the core of consciousness. Executive control, salience, and dorsal/ventral attention networks were commonly included in the main complex across all conditions, implying that these networks are responsible for the core of consciousness. This finding is consistent with the GNWT, as these networks are across the prefrontal and parietal regions.

scholarly journals Electroencephalogram (EEG) Recording Protocol for Cognitive and Affective Human Neuroscience Research

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaclyn L. Farrens ◽  
Aaron M. Simmons ◽  
Steven J. Luck ◽  
Emily S. Kappenman
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
High Temporal Resolution ◽  
Neuroscience Research ◽  
Eeg Data ◽  
Eeg Recordings ◽  
Brain Processing ◽  
Resolution Measure ◽  
Electroencephalogram Eeg

Abstract Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of the most widely used techniques to measure human brain activity. EEG recordings provide a direct, high temporal resolution measure of cortical activity from noninvasive scalp electrodes. However, the signals are small relative to the noise, and optimizing the quality of the recorded EEG data can significantly improve the ability to identify signatures of brain processing. This protocol provides a step-by-step guide to recording the EEG from human research participants using strategies optimized for producing the best quality EEG.

scholarly journals Electroencephalogram (EEG) Recording Protocol for Cognitive and Affective Human Neuroscience Research

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaclyn L. Farrens ◽  
Aaron M. Simmons ◽  
Steven J. Luck ◽  
Emily S. Kappenman
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
High Temporal Resolution ◽  
Neuroscience Research ◽  
Eeg Data ◽  
Eeg Recordings ◽  
Brain Processing ◽  
Resolution Measure ◽  
Electroencephalogram Eeg

Abstract Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of the most widely used techniques to measure human brain activity. EEG recordings provide a direct, high temporal resolution measure of cortical activity from noninvasive scalp electrodes. However, the signals are small relative to the noise, and optimizing the quality of the recorded EEG data can significantly improve the ability to identify signatures of brain processing. This protocol provides a step-by-step guide to recording the EEG from human research participants using strategies optimized for producing the best quality EEG.

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