scholarly journals Connecting Concepts in the Brain by Mapping Cortical Representations of Semantic Relations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yizhen Zhang ◽  
Kuan Han ◽  
Robert Worth ◽  
Zhongming Liu
Keyword(s):  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Semantic Relations ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
New Words ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Cortical Representations ◽  
The Brain

AbstractIn the brain, the semantic system is thought to store concepts. However, little is known about how it connects different concepts and infers semantic relations. To address this question, we collected hours of functional magnetic resonance imaging data from human subjects listening to natural stories. We developed a predictive model of the voxel-wise response and further applied it to thousands of new words. Our results suggest that both semantic categories and relations are represented by spatially overlapping cortical patterns, instead of anatomically segregated regions. Semantic relations that reflect conceptual progression from concreteness to abstractness are represented by cortical patterns of activation in the default mode network and deactivation in the frontoparietal attention network. We conclude that the human brain uses distributed networks to encode not only concepts but also relationships between concepts. In particular, the default mode network plays a central role in semantic processing for abstraction of concepts.

scholarly journals Human back-tracking behaviour is associated with suppression of default-mode region activity and enhanced dorsal anterior cingulate activity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir-Homayoun Javadi ◽  
Eva Zita Patai ◽  
Eugenia Marin-Garcia ◽  
Aaron Margois ◽  
Heng-Ru M. Tan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Dynamic Environments ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
The Brain

AbstractCentral to the concept of the ‘cognitive map’ is that it confers behavioural flexibility, allowing animals to take efficient detours, exploit shortcuts and realise the need to back-track rather than persevere on a poorly chosen route. The neural underpinnings of such naturalistic and flexible behaviour remain unclear. During fMRI we tested human subjects on their ability to navigate to a set of goal locations in a virtual desert island riven by lava, which occasionally shifted to block selected paths (necessitating detours) or receded to open new paths (affording shortcuts). We found that during self-initiated back-tracking, activity increased in frontal regions and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, while activity in regions associated with the core default-mode network was suppressed. Detours activated a network of frontal regions compared to shortcuts. Activity in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex specifically increased when participants encountered new plausible shortcuts but which in fact added to the path (false shortcuts). These results help inform current models as to how the brain supports navigation and planning in dynamic environments.Significance StatementAdaptation to change is important for survival. Although real-world spatial environments are prone to continual change, little is known about how the brain supports navigation in dynamic environments where flexible adjustments to route plans are needed. Here, we used fMRI to examine the brain activity elicited when humans took forced detours, identified shortcuts and spontaneously back-tracked along their recent path. Both externally and internally generated changes in the route activated the fronto-parietal attention network, whereas only internally generated changes generated increased activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex with a concomitant disengagement in regions associated with the default-mode network. The results provide new insights into how the brain plans and re-plans in the face of a changing environment.

scholarly journals I know that I don’t know: Structural and functional connectivity underlying meta-ignorance in pre-schoolers

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Filevich ◽  
Caroline Garcia Forlim ◽  
Carmen Fehrman ◽  
Carina Forster ◽  
Markus Paulus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Cingulate Gyrus ◽  
Partial Knowledge ◽  
Metacognitive Monitoring ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Posterior Cingulate Gyrus ◽  
Knowledge Condition ◽  
The Brain

Research Highlights[1] Children develop the ability to report that they do not know something at around five years of age.[2] Children who could correctly report their own ignorance in a partial-knowledge task showed thicker cortices within medial orbitofrontal cortex.[3] This region was functionally connected to parts of the default-mode network.[4] The default-mode network might support the development of correct metacognitive monitoring.AbstractMetacognition plays a pivotal role in human development. The ability to realize that we do not know something, or meta-ignorance, emerges after approximately five years of age. We aimed at identifying the brain systems that underlie the developmental emergence of this ability in a preschool sample.Twenty-four children aged between five and six years answered questions under three conditions of a meta-ignorance task twice. In the critical partial knowledge condition, an experimenter first showed two toys to a child, then announced that she would place one of them in a box behind a screen, out of sight from the child. The experimenter then asked the child whether or not she knew which toy was in the box.Children who answered correctly both times to the metacognitive question in the partial knowledge condition (n=9) showed greater cortical thickness in a cluster within left medial orbitofrontal cortex than children who did not (n=15). Further, seed-based functional connectivity analyses of the brain during resting state revealed that this region is functionally connected to the medial orbitofrontal gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus and precuneus, and mid- and inferior temporal gyri.This finding suggests that the default mode network, critically through its prefrontal regions, supports introspective processing. It leads to the emergence of metacognitive monitoring allowing children to explicitly report their own ignorance.

Assessment of Graph Metrics and Lateralization of Brain Connectivity in Progression of Alzheimer's Disease Using fMRI

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 46-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhuvaneshwari Bhaskaran ◽  
Kavitha Anandan
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Brain Disorder ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Graph Metrics ◽  
Functional Topology ◽  
The Brain

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive brain disorder which has a long preclinical phase. The beta-amyloid plaques and tangles in the brain are considered as the main pathological causes. Functional connectivity is typically examined in capturing brain network dynamics in AD. A definitive underconnectivity is observed in patients through the progressive stages of AD. Graph theoretic modeling approaches have been effective in understanding the brain dynamics. In this article, the brain connectivity patterns and the functional topology through the progression of Alzheimer's disease are analysed using resting state fMRI. The altered network topology is analysed by graphed theoretical measures and explains cognitive deficits caused by the progression of this disease. Results show that the functional topology is disrupted in the default mode network regions as the disease progresses in patients. Further, it is observed that there is a lack of left lateralization involving default mode network regions as the severity in AD increases.

scholarly journals Multimodal Imaging of Alzheimer Pathophysiology in the Brain's Default Mode Network

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonghan Shin ◽  
Vladimir Kepe ◽  
Gary W. Small ◽  
Michael E. Phelps ◽  
Jorge R. Barrio
Keyword(s):  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Multimodal Imaging ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Default Network ◽  
Spatial Correlations ◽  
Tau Pathology ◽  
Significant Discrepancy ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
The Brain

The spatial correlations between the brain's default mode network (DMN) and the brain regions known to develop pathophysiology in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have recently attracted much attention. In this paper, we compare results of different functional and structural imaging modalities, including MRI and PET, and highlight different patterns of anomalies observed within the DMN. Multitracer PET imaging in subjects with and without dementia has demonstrated that [C-11]PIB- and [F-18]FDDNP-binding patterns in patients with AD overlap within nodes of the brain's default network including the prefrontal, lateral parietal, lateral temporal, and posterior cingulate cortices, with the exception of the medial temporal cortex (especially, the hippocampus) where significant discrepancy between increased [F-18]FDDNP binding and negligible [C-11]PIB-binding was observed. [F-18]FDDNP binding in the medial temporal cortex—a key constituent of the DMN—coincides with both the presence of amyloid and tau pathology, and also with cortical areas with maximal atrophy as demonstrated by T1-weighted MR imaging of AD patients.

scholarly journals Beyond Feeling: Chronic Pain Hurts the Brain, Disrupting the Default-Mode Network Dynamics

2008 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 1398-1403 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. N. Baliki ◽  
P. Y. Geha ◽  
A. V. Apkarian ◽  
D. R. Chialvo
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Network Dynamics ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals The Default Mode Network In Patient with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE): A Resting State fMRI Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30
Author(s):  
Shuhada J.M ◽  
Husbani M.A.R ◽  
A I A Hamid ◽  
Muhammad
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy ◽  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Parietal Lobes ◽  
The Brain

The default mode network (DMN) is involved in conscious, resting state cognition and is thought to be affected in TLE where seizures cause impairment of consciousness. The study aimed to evaluate the brain activation of the DMN regions in both temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients  and healthy subjects by using resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rsfMRI) technique. A same number of fourteen participants with age and gender matched for the healthy subjects and TLE patients were selected with the average age is 36.9 and 37.0 years old, respectively. The rsfMRI imaging protocol was executed using a 3-T Phillips Achieva MRI scanner at the Radiology Department, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM). For healthy subjects, the brain activation cluster in bilateral superior parietal lobes (SPL),precuneus (PRE), supramarginal gyrus (SMG) and inferior parietal lobes (IPL) were found higher than TLE patients. While for TLE patients displays higher activation clusters in bilateral MFG, STG, and ANG. The result from  random effects (RFX) on  two-sample t-tests thresholded at p = 0.001 revealed that the TLE patients display significantly higher activations on the bilateral superior frontal gyrus (SFG), left SMG, left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and right IPL. However for the core-region of DMN such as  bilateral precuneus, left MFG, bilateral STG and bilateral IPL were significantly activated but the number of voxels survives are substantially smaller than other regions such as bilateral SFG. The findings suggested that TLE patients may suffer from an impairment in some DMN region, which may cause certain neuropsychological and cognitive degradation.       Keywords: resting-state fMRI, temporal lobe epilepsy, brain activation, two-sample t-tests

Internal Orientation in Aesthetic Experience

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oshin Vartanian
Keyword(s):  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Considerable Evidence ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Feeling States ◽  
The Brain

There is considerable evidence to suggest that aesthetic experiences engage a distributed set of structures in the brain, and likely emerge from the interactions of multiple neural systems. In addition, aside from an external (i.e., object-focused) orientation, aesthetic experiences also involve an internal (i.e., person-focused) orientation. This internal orientation appears to have two dissociable neural components: one component involves the processing of visceral feeling states (i.e., interoception) and primarily engages the insula, whereas the other involves the processing of self-referential, autobiographical, and narrative information, and is represented by activation in the default mode network. Evidence supporting this neural dissociation has provided insights into processes that can lead to deep and moving aesthetic experiences.

scholarly journals Large-scale brain networks and Freudian ego

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petar Radoev Dimkov
Keyword(s):  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Structural Model ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Theoretical Hypothesis ◽  
Brain Correlates ◽  
The Brain

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, is predominantly known for his conception of the id, ego and super-ego, representing a part of his meta-psychology of the psychic apparatus. Nowadays, with the advancements in technology and science, his meta-psychological structural model of the psyche might be either confirmed or denied by comparing the account of the psychic apparatus of the classical psychoanalysis to the newest findings in neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. Indeed, the founded interdisciplinary project of neuro-psychoanalysis strives to answer such questions. In this article, the current thinking on the discussions around Freudian ego and its possible brain correlates is presented. In 2010, Robin Carhart-Harris and Karl Friston introduced a neuro-psychoanalytic account of the psychic apparatus, where the ego correlated with a large-scale brain network called the default-mode network. In the end of this paper, an original theoretical hypothesis is offered, supplemented with review of the literature, namely that the central-executive network and the salience network are viewed as the true representatives of Freudian ego. The offered hypothesis criticizes Carhart-Harris and Friston’s postulating of the default-mode network as being the brain representative of Freudian ego.

scholarly journals The Chief Role of Frontal Operational Module of the Brain Default Mode Network in the Potential Recovery of Consciousness from the Vegetative State: A Preliminary Comparison of Three Case Reports

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander A. Fingelkurts ◽  
Andrew A. Fingelkurts ◽  
Sergio Bagnato ◽  
Cristina Boccagni ◽  
Giuseppe Galardi
Keyword(s):  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Case Reports ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Vegetative State ◽  
Post Injury ◽  
Course Of Disease ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
The Brain

It has been argued that complex subjective sense of self is linked to the brain default-mode network (DMN). Recent discovery of heterogeneity between distinct subnets (or operational modules - OMs) of the DMN leads to a reconceptualization of its role for the experiential sense of self. Considering the recent proposition that the frontal DMN OM is responsible for the first-person perspective and the sense of agency, while the posterior DMN OMs are linked to the continuity of ‘I’ experience (including autobiographical memories) through embodiment and localization within bodily space, we have tested in this study the hypothesis that heterogeneity in the operational synchrony strength within the frontal DMN OM among patients who are in a vegetative state (VS) could inform about a stable self-consciousness recovery later in the course of disease (up to six years post-injury). Using EEG operational synchrony analysis we have demonstrated that among the three OMs of the DMN only the frontal OM showed important heterogeneity in VS patients as a function of later stable clinical outcome. We also found that the frontal DMN OM was characterized by the process of active uncoupling (stronger in persistent VS) of operations performed by the involved neuronal assemblies.

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