scholarly journals The Effects of Music Intervention on Functional Connectivity Strength of the Brain in Schizophrenia

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mi Yang ◽  
Hui He ◽  
Mingjun Duan ◽  
Xi Chen ◽  
Xin Chang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Music Intervention ◽  
Functional Connection ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Functional Connectivity Strength ◽  
The Right ◽  
Connectivity Strength

Schizophrenia is often associated with behavior abnormality in the cognitive and affective domain. Music intervention is used as a complementary treatment for improving symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. However, the neurophysiological correlates of these remissions remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated the effects of music intervention in neural circuits through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in schizophrenic subjects. Under the standard care, patients were randomly assigned to music and non-music interventions (MTSZ, UMTSZ) for 1 month. Resting-state fMRI were acquired over three time points (baseline, 1 month, and 6 months later) in patients and analyzed using functional connectivity strength (FCS) and seed-based functional connection (FC) approaches. At baseline, compared with healthy controls, decreased FCS in the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG) was observed in patients. However, after music intervention, the functional circuitry of the right MTG, which was related with the function of emotion and sensorimotor, was improved in MTSZ. Furthermore, the FC increments were significantly correlated with the improvement of symptoms, while vanishing 6 months later. Together, these findings provided evidence that music intervention might positively modulate the functional connectivity of MTG in patients with schizophrenia; such changes might be associated with the observed therapeutic effects of music intervention on neurocognitive function. This trial is registered with ChiCTR-OPC-14005339.

scholarly journals Aberrant Brain Functional Connectivity Strength and Effective Connectivity in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Xi Guo ◽  
Su Wang ◽  
Yu-Chen Chen ◽  
Heng-Le Wei ◽  
Gang-Ping Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Disease Duration ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Functional Connectivity Strength ◽  
The Right ◽  
Brain Functional Connectivity ◽  
Connectivity Strength

Alterations of brain functional connectivity in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have been reported by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, but the underlying precise neuropathological mechanism remains unclear. This study is aimed at investigating the implicit alterations of functional connections in T2DM by integrating functional connectivity strength (FCS) and Granger causality analysis (GCA) and further exploring their associations with clinical characteristics. Sixty T2DM patients and thirty-three sex-, age-, and education-matched healthy controls (HC) were recruited. Global FCS analysis of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed to explore seed regions with significant differences between the two groups; then, GCA was applied to detect directional effective connectivity (EC) between the seeds and other brain regions. Correlations of EC with clinical variables were further explored in T2DM patients. Compared with HC, T2DM patients showed lower FCS in the bilateral fusiform gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), and right postcentral gyrus, but higher FCS in the right supplementary motor area (SMA). Moreover, altered directional EC was found between the left fusiform gyrus and bilateral lingual gyrus and right medial frontal gyrus (MFG), as well as between the right SFG and bilateral frontal regions. In addition, triglyceride, insulin, and plasma glucose levels were correlated with the abnormal EC of the left fusiform, while disease duration and cognitive function were associated with the abnormal EC of the right SFG in T2DM patients. These results suggest that T2DM patients show aberrant brain function connectivity strength and effective connectivity which is associated with the diabetes-related metabolic characteristics, disease duration, and cognitive function, providing further insights into the complex neural basis of diabetes.

Lateral OFC Activity Predicts Decision Bias due to First Impressions during Ultimatum Games

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 428-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hackjin Kim ◽  
Min-Jo Choi ◽  
In-Ji Jang
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Decision Bias ◽  
Ultimatum Games ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Functional Connectivity Strength ◽  
Neural Underpinnings ◽  
The Right ◽  
Social Decision Making ◽  
Facial Trustworthiness ◽  
Connectivity Strength

Despite the prevalence and potentially harmful consequences of first impression bias during social decision-making, its precise neural underpinnings remain unclear. Here, on the basis of the fMRI study using ultimatum games, the authors show that the responders' decisions to accept or reject offers were significantly affected by facial trustworthiness of proposers. Analysis using a model-based fMRI method revealed that activity in the right lateral OFC (lOFC) of responders increased as a function of negative decision bias, indicating a greater likelihood of rejecting otherwise fair offers, possibly because of the facial trustworthiness of proposers. In addition, lOFC showed changes in functional connectivity strength with amygdala and insula as a function of decision bias, and individual differences in the strengths of connectivities between lOFC and bilateral insula were also found to predict the likelihood of responders to reject offers from untrustworthy-looking proposers. The present findings emphasize that the lOFC plays a pivotal role in integrating signals related to facial impression and creating signal biasing decisions during social interactions.

scholarly journals Brain Activations and Functional Connectivity Patterns Associated with Insight-Based and Analytical Anagram Solving

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 170
Author(s):  
Dmitry O. Sinitsyn ◽  
Ilya S. Bakulin ◽  
Alexandra G. Poydasheva ◽  
Liudmila A. Legostaeva ◽  
Elena I. Kremneva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Connectivity Patterns ◽  
Active Research ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

Insight is one of the most mysterious problem-solving phenomena involving the sudden emergence of a solution, often preceded by long unproductive attempts to find it. This seemingly unexplainable generation of the answer, together with the role attributed to insight in the advancement of science, technology and culture, stimulate active research interest in discovering its neuronal underpinnings. The present study employs functional Magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to probe and compare the brain activations occurring in the course of solving anagrams by insight or analytically, as judged by the subjects. A number of regions were activated in both strategies, including the left premotor cortex, left claustrum, and bilateral clusters in the precuneus and middle temporal gyrus. The activated areas span the majority of the clusters reported in a recent meta-analysis of insight-related fMRI studies. At the same time, the activation patterns were very similar between the insight and analytical solutions, with the only difference in the right sensorimotor region probably explainable by subject motion related to the study design. Additionally, we applied resting-state fMRI to study functional connectivity patterns correlated with the individual frequency of insight anagram solutions. Significant correlations were found for the seed-based connectivity of areas in the left premotor cortex, left claustrum, and left frontal eye field. The results stress the need for optimizing insight paradigms with respect to the accuracy and reliability of the subjective insight/analytical solution classification. Furthermore, the short-lived nature of the insight phenomenon makes it difficult to capture the associated neural events with the current experimental techniques and motivates complementing such studies by the investigation of the structural and functional brain features related to the individual differences in the frequency of insight-based decisions.

scholarly journals Functional connectivity strength within the auditory forebrain is altered by song learning and predicts song stereotypy in developing male zebra finches

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elliot A. Layden ◽  
Kathryn E. Schertz ◽  
Marc G. Berman ◽  
Sarah E. London
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Zebra Finch ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Auditory Forebrain ◽  
Sensory Learning ◽  
Functional Connectivity Strength ◽  
Caudomedial Nidopallium ◽  
Single Cluster ◽  
Connectivity Strength

AbstractMuch as humans acquire speech in early childhood, the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) songbird learns to sing from an adult “tutor” during the first three months of life. Within a well-defined critical period (CP), juvenile zebra finches memorize a tutor song that will guide subsequent motor patterning. This sensory learning process is mediated by tutor experience-dependent neuroplasticity within the auditory forebrain. Here, we used longitudinal resting-state fMRI analyses to investigate whether tutor experience also modifies patterns of functional connectivity (FC) within the juvenile zebra finch brain. Eighteen male zebra finches (only males sing) were scanned before, during, and at the end of the CP, as well as at the young adult stage. Prior to the onset of the CP, birds were separated into rearing conditions: Normal (aviary-housed; N=5), Tutored (one adult male tutor and one adult female; N=7), and Isolate (two adult females, isolated from male song; N=6). Brain-wide voxel-wise analyses identified a single cluster overlapping the left caudomedial nidopallium (NCM) of the auditory forebrain that showed developmentally decreasing FC strength in Isolates but stable or increasing FC in Normal and Tutored birds. Additionally, FC between left NCM and left dorsal cerebellum showed a parallel developmental difference. Developmental changes in left NCM FC strength statistically mediated condition-related differences in song stereotypy. These results extend previous reports of tutor experience-dependent plasticity in NCM at epigenetic, genomic, molecular, and cellular levels to the whole-brain functional network level by demonstrating that tutor experience also influences the development of NCM FC. Moreover, these results link NCM FC to the emergence of song stereotypy.

scholarly journals Distinctive Alterations of Functional Connectivity Strength between Vascular and Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Hui Li ◽  
Shuai Gao ◽  
Xiuqin Jia ◽  
Tao Jiang ◽  
Kuncheng Li
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽  
Functional Connectivity Strength ◽  
Connectivity Strength

Widespread structural and functional alterations have been reported in the two highly prevalent mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subtypes, amnestic MCI (aMCI) and vascular MCI (VaMCI). However, the changing pattern in functional connectivity strength (FCS) remains largely unclear. The aim of the present study is to detect the differences of FCS and to further explore the detailed resting-state functional connectivity (FC) alterations among VaMCI subjects, aMCI subjects, and healthy controls (HC). Twenty-six aMCI subjects, 31 VaMCI participants, and 36 HC participants underwent cognitive assessments and resting-state functional MRI scans. At first, one-way ANCOVA and post hoc analysis indicated significant decreased FCS in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) in aMCI and VaMCI groups compared to HC, especially in the VaMCI group. Then, we selected the left MTG as a seed to further explore the detailed resting-state FC alterations among the three groups, and the results indicated that FC between the left MTG and some frontal brain regions were significantly decreased mainly in VaMCI. Finally, partial correlation analysis revealed that the FC values between the left MTG and left inferior frontal gyrus were positively correlated with the cognitive performance episodic memory and negatively related to the living status. The present study demonstrated that different FCS alterations existed in aMCI and VaMCI. These findings may provide a novel insight into the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms underlying different MCI subtypes.

Altered cerebellar functional connectivity in remitted bipolar disorder: A resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (10) ◽  
pp. 962-971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Wang ◽  
Shuming Zhong ◽  
Guanmao Chen ◽  
Tao Liu ◽  
Lianping Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Connectivity Pattern ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Functional Connectivity Strength ◽  
The Right ◽  
Connectivity Strength

Objectives: Several recent studies have reported a strong association between the cerebellar structural and functional abnormalities and psychiatric disorders. However, there are no studies to investigate possible changes in cerebellar functional connectivity in bipolar disorder. This study aimed to examine the whole-brain functional connectivity pattern of patients with remitted bipolar disorder II, in particular in the cerebellum. Methods: A total of 25 patients with remitted bipolar disorder II and 25 controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychological tests. Voxel-wise whole-brain connectivity was analyzed using a graph theory approach: functional connectivity strength. A seed-based resting-state functional connectivity analysis was further performed to investigate abnormal functional connectivity pattern of those regions with changed functional connectivity strength. Results: Remitted bipolar disorder II patients had significantly decreased functional connectivity strength in the bilateral posterior lobes of cerebellum (mainly lobules VIIb/VIIIa). The seed-based functional connectivity analyses revealed decreased functional connectivity between the right posterior cerebellum and the default mode network (i.e. right posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus and right superior temporal gyrus), bilateral hippocampus, right putamen, left paracentral lobule and bilateral posterior cerebellum and decreased functional connectivity between the left posterior cerebellum and the right inferior parietal lobule and bilateral posterior cerebellum in patients with remitted bipolar disorder II. Conclusion: Our results suggest that cerebellar dysconnectivity, in particular distributed cerebellar–cerebral functional connectivity, might be associated with the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder.

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