scholarly journals Long-Term Effects of Musical Training and Functional Plasticity in Salience System

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Luo ◽  
Shipeng Tu ◽  
Yueheng Peng ◽  
Shan Gao ◽  
Jianfu Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Functional Integration ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Connectivity Analysis ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
Functional Connectivity Analysis ◽  
Left Insula

Musicians undergoing long-term musical training show improved emotional and cognitive function, which suggests the presence of neuroplasticity. The structural and functional impacts of the human brain have been observed in musicians. In this study, we used data-driven functional connectivity analysis to map local and distant functional connectivity in resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 28 professional musicians and 28 nonmusicians. Compared with nonmusicians, musicians exhibited significantly greater local functional connectivity density in 10 regions, including the bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and anterior temporoparietal junction. A distant functional connectivity analysis demonstrated that most of these regions were included in salience system, which is associated with high-level cognitive control and fundamental attentional process. Additionally, musicians had significantly greater functional integration in this system, especially for connections to the left insula. Increased functional connectivity between the left insula and right temporoparietal junction may be a response to long-term musical training. Our findings indicate that the improvement of salience network is involved in musical training. The salience system may represent a new avenue for exploration regarding the underlying foundations of enhanced higher-level cognitive processes in musicians.

scholarly journals Altered Functional Integration in the Salience and Default Mode Networks in Euthymic Pediatric Bipolar Disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Weifang Cao ◽  
Haoran Chen ◽  
Qing Jiao ◽  
Dong Cui ◽  
Yongxin Guo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Functional Integration ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Pediatric Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Connectivity Analysis ◽  
Functional Connectivity Density ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
Functional Connectivity Analysis

Accumulating studies demonstrate emotional and cognitive dysregulation in the euthymic period of pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD). However, the relative contribution of functional integration in human brain to disturbed emotion and cognitive function in the euthymic PBD patients remains unclear. In this study, 16 euthymic PBD patients and 16 healthy controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. A data-driven functional connectivity analysis was used to investigate functional connectivity changes of the euthymic PBD. Compared with healthy controls, the euthymic PBD exhibited greater global functional connectivity density in the left anterior insula and lower global functional connectivity density in the right temporoparietal junction, the left angular gyrus, and the bilateral occipital lobule. A distant functional connectivity analysis demonstrated altered integration within the salience and default mode networks in euthymic PBD. Correlation analysis found that altered functional connectivity of the salience network was related to the reduced performance in the backward digit span test, and altered functional connectivity of the default mode network was related to the Young Mania Rating Scale in euthymic PBD patients. Our findings indicated that disturbed functional integration in salience and default mode networks might shed light on the physiopathology associated with emotional and cognitive dysregulation in PBD.

scholarly journals Diagnosis of Schizophrenia with Functional Connectome Data: A Graph-Based Convolutional Neural Network Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kang-Han Oh ◽  
Il-Seok Oh ◽  
Uyanga Tsogt ◽  
Jie Shen ◽  
Woo-Sung Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Clinical Information ◽  
Connectivity Analysis ◽  
Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Neural Network Approach ◽  
Functional Connectome ◽  
Functional Connectivity Analysis ◽  
Gradient Based ◽  
Global Covariance

Abstract Previous deep learning methods have not captured graph or network representations of brain structural or functional connectome data. To address this, we developed the Brain Graph Covariance Pooling Network (BrainGCPNet) by incorporating global covariance pooling and BrainNetCNN into the self-attention mechanism. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were obtained from 171 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) and 161 healthy controls (HCs). We conducted an ablation analysis of the proposed BrainGCPNet and quantitative performance comparisons with competing methods using the nested tenfold cross validation strategy. The performance of our model was compared with competing methods. Discriminative connections were visualized using the gradient-based explanation method and compared with the results obtained using functional connectivity analysis. The BrainGCPNet showed an accuracy of 83·13%, outperforming other competing methods. Among the top 10 discriminative connections, some were associated with the default mode network and auditory network. Interestingly, these regions were also significant in the functional connectivity analysis. Our findings suggest that the proposed BrainGCPNet can classify patients with SSDs and HCs with higher accuracy than other models. Visualization of salient regions provides important clinical information. These results highlight the potential use of the BrainGCPNet in the diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) for migraine: an fMRI study

2020 ◽  
pp. rapm-2020-102088
Author(s):  
Yue Zhang ◽  
Yiting Huang ◽  
Hui Li ◽  
Zhaoxian Yan ◽  
Ying Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Vagus Nerve ◽  
Nerve Stimulation ◽  
Vagus Nerve Stimulation ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Connectivity Analysis ◽  
Functional Connectivity Analysis ◽  
Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation

BackgroundDysfunction of the thalamocortical connectivity network is thought to underlie the pathophysiology of the migraine. This current study aimed to explore the thalamocortical connectivity changes during 4 weeks of continuous transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) treatment on migraine patients.Methods70 migraine patients were recruited and randomized in an equal ratio to receive real taVNS or sham taVNS treatments for 4 weeks. Resting-state functional MRI was collected before and after treatment. The thalamus was parceled into functional regions of interest (ROIs) on the basis of six priori-defined cortical ROIs covering the entire cortex. Seed-based functional connectivity analysis between each thalamic subregion and the whole brain was further compared across groups after treatment.ResultsOf the 59 patients that finished the study, those in the taVNS group had significantly reduced number of migraine days, pain intensity and migraine attack times after 4 weeks of treatment compared with the sham taVNS. Functional connectivity analysis revealed that taVNS can increase the connectivity between the motor-related thalamus subregion and anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex, and decrease the connectivity between occipital cortex-related thalamus subregion and postcentral gyrus/precuneus.ConclusionOur findings suggest that taVNS can relieve the symptoms of headache as well as modulate the thalamocortical circuits in migraine patients. The results provide insights into the neural mechanism of taVNS and reveal potential therapeutic targets for migraine patients.

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