scholarly journals Neural Encoding of Acupuncture Needling Sensations: Evidence from a fMRI Study

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoling Wang ◽  
Suk-Tak Chan ◽  
Jiliang Fang ◽  
Erika E. Nixon ◽  
Jing Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Neural Encoding ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
Neocortical Network ◽  
The Brain

Deqiresponse, a psychophysical response characterized by a spectrum of different needling sensations, is essential for Chinese acupuncture clinical efficacy. Previous neuroimaging research works have investigated the neural correlates of an overalldeqiresponse by summating the scores of different needling sensations. However, the roles of individual sensations in brain activity and how they interact with each other remain to be clarified. In this study, we applied fMRI to investigate the neural correlates of individual components ofdeqiduring acupuncture on the right LV3 (Taichong) acupoint. We selected a subset ofdeqiresponses, namely, pressure, heaviness, fullness, numbness, and tingling. Using the individual components ofdeqiof different subjects as covariates in the analysis of percentage change of bold signal, pressure was found to be a striking sensation, contributing to most of negative activation of a limbic-paralimbic-neocortical network (LPNN). The similar or opposite neural activity in the heavily overlapping regions is found to be responding to different needling sensations, including bilateral LPNN, right orbitofrontal cortex, and bilateral posterior parietal cortex. These findings provide the neuroimaging evidence of how the individual needle sensations interact in the brain, showing that the modulatory effects of different needling sensations contribute to acupuncture modulations of LPNN network.

scholarly journals Dissociating Neural Correlates of Action Monitoring and Metacognition of Agency

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (11) ◽  
pp. 3620-3636 ◽  
Author(s):  
David B. Miele ◽  
Tor D. Wager ◽  
Jason P. Mitchell ◽  
Janet Metcalfe
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Dorsal Striatum ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Action Monitoring ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Metacognitive Judgments ◽  
The Right ◽  
Reflective Processing ◽  
Increased Activity ◽  
The Brain

Judgments of agency refer to people's self-reflective assessments concerning their own control: their assessments of the extent to which they themselves are responsible for an action. These self-reflective metacognitive judgments can be distinguished from action monitoring, which involves the detection of the divergence (or lack of divergence) between observed states and expected states. Presumably, people form judgments of agency by metacognitively reflecting on the output of their action monitoring and then consciously inferring the extent to which they caused the action in question. Although a number of previous imaging studies have been directed at action monitoring, none have assessed judgments of agency as a potentially separate process. The present fMRI study used an agency paradigm that not only allowed us to examine the brain activity associated with action monitoring but that also enabled us to investigate those regions associated with metacognition of agency. Regarding action monitoring, we found that being “out of control” during the task (i.e., detection of a discrepancy between observed and expected states) was associated with increased brain activity in the right TPJ, whereas being “in control” was associated with increased activity in the pre-SMA, rostral cingulate zone, and dorsal striatum (regions linked to self-initiated action). In contrast, when participants made self-reflective metacognitive judgments about the extent of their own control (i.e., judgments of agency) compared with when they made judgments that were not about control (i.e., judgments of performance), increased activity was observed in the anterior PFC, a region associated with self-reflective processing. These results indicate that action monitoring is dissociable from people's conscious self-attributions of control.

Brain Activities in a Skilled versus a Novice Artist: An fMRI Study

Leonardo ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Solso
Keyword(s):  
Blood Flow ◽  
Parietal Region ◽  
Facial Information ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Magnetic Reso ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Motor Movements ◽  
The Right ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Brain

Functional Magnetic Reso-nance Imaging (fMRI) scans of a skilled portrait artist and of a non-artist were made as each drew a series of faces. There was a dis-cernible increase in blood flow in the right-posterior parietal region of the brain for both the artist and non-artist during the task, a site normally associated with facial per-ception and processing. However, the level of activation appeared lower in the expert than in the nov-ice, suggesting that a skilled artist may process facial information more efficiently. In addition, the skilled artist showed greater acti-vation in the right frontal area of the brain than did the novice, which the author posits indicates that such an artist uses “higher-or-der” cognitive functions, such as the formation of associations and planning motor movements, when viewing and drawing a face.

Lateralization of the Posterior Parietal Cortex for Internal Monitoring of Self- versus Externally Generated Movements

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 1827-1835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenji Ogawa ◽  
Toshio Inui
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Clinical Findings ◽  
Visual Occlusion ◽  
Mouse Cursor ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Human Motor ◽  
The Right

Internal monitoring or state estimation of movements is essential for human motor control to compensate for inherent delays and noise in sensorimotor loops. Two types of internal estimation of movements exist: self-generated movements, and externally generated movements. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate differences in brain activity for internal monitoring of self- versus externally generated movements during visual occlusion. Participants tracked a sinusoidally moving target with a mouse cursor. On some trials, vision of either target (externally generated) or cursor (self-generated) movement was transiently occluded, during which subjects continued tracking by estimating current position of either the invisible target or cursor on screen. Analysis revealed that both occlusion conditions were associated with increased activity in the presupplementary motor area and decreased activity in the right lateral occipital cortex compared to a control condition with no occlusion. Moreover, the right and left posterior parietal cortex (PPC) showed greater activation during occlusion of target and cursor movements, respectively. This study suggests lateralization of the PPC for internal monitoring of internally versus externally generated movements, fully consistent with previously reported clinical findings.

Human Cerebellum Plays an Important Role in Memory-Timed Finger Movement: An fMRI Study

2000 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 1079-1087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryuta Kawashima ◽  
Jiro Okuda ◽  
Atsushi Umetsu ◽  
Motoaki Sugiura ◽  
Kentaro Inoue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Anterior Lobe ◽  
Motor Area ◽  
Finger Movement ◽  
Primary Motor Area ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
The Brain

The purpose of this study was to determine, by using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the areas of the brain activated during a memory-timed finger movement task and compare these with those activated during a visually cued movement task. Because it is likely that subjects engage in subvocalization associated with chronometric counting to achieve accurate timing during memory-timed movements, the authors sought to determine the areas of the brain activated during a silent articulation task in which the subjects were instructed to reproduce the same timing as for the memory-timed movement task without any lip movements or vocalization. The memory-timed finger movement task induced activation of the anterior lobe of the cerebellum (lobules IV and V) bilaterally, the contralateral primary motor area, the supplementary motor area (SMA), the premotor area (PMA), the prefrontal cortex, and the posterior parietal cortex bilaterally, compared with the resting condition. The same areas in the SMA and left prefrontal cortex were activated during the silent articulation task compared with the resting condition. The anterior lobe of the cerebellum on both sides was also activated during the silent articulation task compared with the resting condition, but these activations did not reach statistical significance ( P < 0.05 corrected). In addition, the anterior cerebellum on both sides showed significant activation during the memory-timed movement task when compared with the visually cued finger movement task. The visually cued finger movement task specifically activated the ipsilateral PMA and the intraparietal cortex bilaterally. The results indicate that the anterior lobe of the cerebellum of both sides, the SMA, and the left prefrontal cortex were probably involved in the generation of accurate timing, functioning as a clock within the CNS, and that the dorsal visual pathway may be involved in the generation of visually cued movements.

Evidence for the Involvement of the Posterior Parietal Cortex in Coordination of Fingertip Forces for Grasp Stability in Manipulation

2003 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 2978-2986 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Henrik Ehrsson ◽  
Anders Fagergren ◽  
Roland S. Johansson ◽  
Hans Forssberg
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Grip Force ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Load Force ◽  
Force Coordination ◽  
Grasp Stability ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
The Right ◽  
Fingertip Forces

Grasp stability during object manipulation is achieved by the grip forces applied normal to the grasped surfaces increasing and decreasing in phase with increases and decreases of destabilizing load forces applied tangential to the grasped surfaces. This force coordination requires that the CNS anticipates the grip forces that match the requirements imposed by the self-generated load forces. Here, we use functional MRI (fMRI) to study neural correlates of the grip-load force coordination in a grip-load force task in which six healthy humans attempted to lift an immovable test object held between the tips of the right index finger and thumb. The recorded brain activity was compared with the brain activity obtained in two control tasks in which the same pair of digits generated forces with similar time courses and magnitudes; i.e., a grip force task where the subjects only pinched the object and did not apply load forces, and a load force task, in which the subjects applied vertical forces to the object without generating grip forces. Thus neither the load force task nor the grip force task involved coordinated grip-load forces, but together they involved the same grip force and load force output. We found that the grip-load force task was specifically associated with activation of a section of the right intraparietal cortex, which is the first evidence for involvement of the posterior parietal cortex in the sensorimotor control of coordinated grip and load forces in manipulation. We suggest that this area might represents a node in the network of cortical and subcortical regions that implement anticipatory control of fingertip forces for grasp stability.

Modulation of Cortical Activity During Different Imitative Behaviors

2003 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 460-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Koski ◽  
Marco Iacoboni ◽  
Marie-Charlotte Dubeau ◽  
Roger P. Woods ◽  
John C. Mazziotta
Keyword(s):  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
Right Hand ◽  
Tightly Coupled ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Control

Imitation is a basic form of motor learning during development. We have a preference to imitate the actions of others as if looking in a mirror (specular imitation: i.e., when the actor moves the left hand, the imitator moves the right hand) rather than with the anatomically congruent hand (anatomic imitation: i.e., actor and imitator both moving the right hand). We hypothesized that this preference reflects changes in activity in previously described frontoparietal cortical areas involved in directly matching observed and executed actions (mirror neuron areas). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study brain activity in normal volunteers imitating left and right hand movements with their right hand. Bilateral inferior frontal and right posterior parietal cortex were more active during specular imitation compared with anatomic imitation and control motor tasks. Furthermore this same pattern of activity was also observed in the rostral part of the supplementary motor area (SMA-proper) of the right hemisphere. These findings suggest that the degree of involvement of frontoparietal mirror areas in imitation depends on the nature of the imitative behavior, ruling out a linguistic mediation of these areas in imitation. Moreover, activity in the SMA appears to be tightly coupled to frontoparietal mirror areas when subjects copy the actions of others.

scholarly journals Systematic Underreproduction of Time Is Independent of Judgment Certainty

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Riemer ◽  
Darren Rhodes ◽  
Thomas Wolbers
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Judgment Bias ◽  
Time Discrimination ◽  
Temporal Intervals ◽  
Neuronal Processes ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Temporal Stimuli ◽  
The Right ◽  
Temporal Judgments

We recently proposed that systematic underreproduction of time is caused by a general judgment bias towards earlier responses, instead of reflecting a genuine misperception of temporal intervals. Here we tested whether this bias can be explained by the uncertainty associated with temporal judgments. We applied transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to inhibit neuronal processes in the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and tested its effects on time discrimination and reproduction tasks. The results show increased certainty for discriminative time judgments after PPC inhibition. They suggest that the right PPC plays an inhibitory role for time perception, possibly by mediating the multisensory integration between temporal stimuli and other quantities. Importantly, this increased judgment certainty had no influence on the degree of temporal underreproduction. We conclude that the systematic underreproduction of time is not caused by uncertainty for temporal judgments.

scholarly journals Sex differences in neural and behavioral signatures of cooperation revealed by fNIRS hyperscanning

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Baker ◽  
Ning Liu ◽  
Xu Cui ◽  
Pascal Vrticka ◽  
Manish Saggar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Behavioral Signatures ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Researchers from multiple fields have sought to understand how sex moderates human social behavior. While over 50 years of research has revealed differences in cooperation behavior of males and females, the underlying neural correlates of these sex differences have not been explained. A missing and fundamental element of this puzzle is an understanding of how the sex composition of an interacting dyad influences the brain and behavior during cooperation. Using fNIRS-based hyperscanning in 111 same- and mixed-sex dyads, we identified significant behavioral and neural sex-related differences in association with a computer-based cooperation task. Dyads containing at least one male demonstrated significantly higher behavioral performance than female/female dyads. Individual males and females showed significant activation in the right frontopolar and right inferior prefrontal cortices, although this activation was greater in females compared to males. Female/female dyad’s exhibited significant inter-brain coherence within the right temporal cortex, while significant coherence in male/male dyads occurred in the right inferior prefrontal cortex. Significant coherence was not observed in mixed-sex dyads. Finally, for same-sex dyads only, task-related inter-brain coherence was positively correlated with cooperation task performance. Our results highlight multiple important and previously undetected influences of sex on concurrent neural and behavioral signatures of cooperation.

scholarly journals The Localization of Activity Sources in a Three-Dimensional Model of the Human Brain Using the Joint Analysis of EEG / sMRI Data

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 18-28
Author(s):  
E. Bykova ◽  
A. Savostyanov
Keyword(s):  
Inverse Problem ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Human Head ◽  
Joint Analysis ◽  
Dimensional Model ◽  
Three Dimensional Model ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Brain

Despite the large number of existing methods of the diagnosis of the brain, brain remains the least studied part of the human body. Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of the most popular methods of studying of brain activity due to its relative cheapness, harmless, and mobility of equipment. While analyzing the EEG data of the brain, the problem of solving of the inverse problem of electroencephalography, the localization of the sources of electrical activity of the brain, arises. This problem can be formulated as follows: according to the signals recorded on the surface of the head, it is necessary to determine the location of sources of these signals in the brain. The purpose of my research is to develop a software system for localization of brain activity sources based on the joint analysis of EEG and sMRI data. There are various approaches to solving of the inverse problem of EEG. To obtain the most exact results, some of them involve the use of data on the individual anatomy of the human head – structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI data). In this paper, one of these approaches is supposed to be used – Electromagnetic Spatiotemporal Independent Component Analysis (EMSICA) proposed by A. Tsai. The article describes the main stages of the system, such as preprocessing of the initial data; the calculation of the special matrix of the EMSICA approach, the values of which show the level of activity of a certain part of the brain; visualization of brain activity sources on its three-dimensional model.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document