Time-resolved classification of dog brain signals reveals early processing of faces, species and emotion
Dogs process faces and emotional expressions much like humans, but the time windows important for face processing in dogs are largely unknown. By combining our non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) protocol on dogs with machine-learning algorithms, we show category-specific dog brain responses to pictures of human and dog facial expressions, objects, and phase-scrambled faces. We trained a support vector machine classifier with spatiotemporal EEG data to discriminate between responses to pairs of images. The classification accuracy was highest for humans or dogs vs. scrambled images, with most informative time intervals of 100–140 ms and 240–280 ms. We also detected a response sensitive…
The relationship between electrophysiological and hemodynamic measures of neural activity varies across picture naming tasks: A multimodal magnetoencephalography-functional magnetic resonance imaging study
Funding Information: This work was financially supported by the Academy of Finland (Finnish Center of Excellence in Computational Inference Research COIN and grants #292334, #294238 to SK; #255349, #315553 to RS; #257576 to JK; #286405 funding for TM), the Sigrid Jusélius Foundation (grant to RS), the Finnish Cultural Foundation (grant to ML), the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland (grant to ML), the Maud Kuistila Memorial Foundation (grant to ML), and Aalto Brain Center. Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2022 Mononen, Kujala, Liljeström, Leppäaho, Kaski and Salmelin. Different neuroimaging methods can yield different views of task-dependent neural engagement. Studies examining the relat…
Cortical beta burst dynamics are altered in Parkinson's disease but normalized by deep brain stimulation
Funding Information: Amande Pauls was supported by a personal grant from the University of Helsinki . Olesia Korsun was supported by the Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation , the Orion Research Foundation , the Finnish Parkinson Foundation and the Finnish Brain Foundation . Mia Liljeström was supported by the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland , the Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation , and the Finnish Cultural Foundation . Eero Pekkonen was supported by Finnish Government research funding ( TYH- fund ). Hanna Renvall was supported by the Academy of Finland (grant number 321460 ) and Paulo Foundation. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Exaggerated subthalamic beta oscillatory activity …
Task-Modulated Corticocortical Synchrony in the Cognitive-Motor Network Supporting Handwriting
Abstract Both motor and cognitive aspects of behavior depend on dynamic, accurately timed neural processes in large-scale brain networks. Here, we studied synchronous interplay between cortical regions during production of cognitive-motor sequences in humans. Specifically, variants of handwriting that differed in motor variability, linguistic content, and memorization of movement cues were contrasted to unveil functional sensitivity of corticocortical connections. Data-driven magnetoencephalography mapping (n = 10) uncovered modulation of mostly left-hemispheric corticocortical interactions, as quantified by relative changes in phase synchronization. At low frequencies (~2–13 Hz), enhanced …
Beta-band MEG signal power changes in older adults after physical exercise program with and without additional cognitive training
Physical exercise has been considered to be an efficient mean of preserving cognitive function and it influences both the structural and functional characteristics of the brain. It has especially been shown to increase brain plasticity, the capacity to re-structure brain properties in response to interaction, such as cognitive practice. Studies have also examined the potential additive effect of cognitive training on the documented benefit of physical exercise, commonly, however, not at the neural level. We monitored, using magnetoencephalography (MEG), the brain processes associated with executive functions in older individuals who participated in a 12-month randomized controlled trial inc…
Picture naming yields highly consistent cortical activation patterns: test-retest reliability of magnetoencephalography recordings
AbstractReliable paradigms and imaging measures of individual-level brain activity are paramount when reaching from group-level research studies to clinical assessment of individual patients. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) provides a direct, non-invasive measure of cortical processing with high spatiotemporal accuracy, and is thus well suited for assessment of functional brain damage in patients with language difficulties. This MEG study aimed to identify, in a picture naming paradigm, source-localized evoked activity and modulations of cortical oscillations that show high test-retest reliability across measurement days in healthy individuals, demonstrating their applicability in clinical set…
Picture naming yields highly consistent cortical activation patterns: Test–retest reliability of magnetoencephalography recordings
Reliable paradigms and imaging measures of individual-level brain activity are paramount when reaching from group-level research studies to clinical assessment of individual patients. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) provides a direct, non-invasive measure of cortical processing with high spatiotemporal accuracy, and is thus well suited for assessment of functional brain damage in patients with language difficulties. This MEG study aimed to identify, in a delayed picture naming paradigm, source-localized evoked activity and modulations of cortical oscillations that show high test–retest reliability across measurement days in healthy individuals, demonstrating their applicability in clinical set…
Removing ocular artifacts from magnetoencephalographic data on naturalistic reading of continuous texts
Naturalistic reading paradigms and stimuli consisting of long continuous texts are essential for characterizing the cortical basis of reading. Due to the highly dynamic nature of the reading process, electrophysiological brain imaging methods with high spatial and temporal resolution, such as magnetoencephalography (MEG), are ideal for tracking them. However, as electrophysiological recordings are sensitive to electromagnetic artifacts, data recorded during naturalistic reading is confounded by ocular artifacts. In this study, we evaluate two different pipelines for removing ocular artifacts from MEG data collected during continuous, naturalistic reading, with the focus on saccades and blin…
Spectral signatures of cross-modal attentional control in the adolescent brain and their link with physical activity and aerobic fitness levels
AbstractTop–down attentional control seems to increase and suppress the activity of sensory cortices for relevant stimuli and to suppress activity for irrelevant ones. Higher physical activity (PA) and aerobic fitness (AF) levels have been associated with improved attention, but most studies have focused on unimodal tasks (e.g., visual stimuli only). The impact of higher PA or AF levels on the ability of developing brains to focus on certain stimuli while ignoring distractions remains unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the neural processes in visual and auditory sensory cortices during a cross-modal attention–allocation task using magnetoencephalography in 13–16-year-old adolesce…