Search results for "Prefrontal Cortex"
showing 10 items of 323 documents
Seeking the “Beauty Center” in the Brain: A Meta-Analysis of fMRI Studies of Beautiful Human Faces and Visual Art
2020
AbstractThe existence of a common beauty is a long-standing debate in philosophy and related disciplines. In the last two decades, cognitive neuroscientists have sought to elucidate this issue by exploring the common neural basis of the experience of beauty. Still, empirical evidence for such common neural basis of different forms of beauty is not conclusive. To address this question, we performed an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis on the existing neuroimaging studies of beauty appreciation of faces and visual art by non-expert adults (49 studies, 982 participants, meta-data are available at https://osf.io/s9xds/). We observed that perceiving these two forms of beauty a…
Extraction of prefronto-amygdalar pathways by combining probability maps
2008
Many recent studies reported altered functional connectivity within the frontolimbic circuitry in a wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders. However, functional connectivity must rely on structural connections. In this study we applied a novel probabilistic fiber tracking method to assess the structural connectivity between the amygdala and different prefrontal brain regions in vivo. Twenty healthy subjects were investigated with diffusion tensor imaging. Probabilistic fiber tracking was started from the amygdala and different prefrontal brain regions. Resulting probability maps were combined using an extended multiplication of probabilistic maps to identify the most probable anatomical pa…
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test: an indicator of vulnerability to schizophrenia?
1992
The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is a neuropsychological test, hypothesized to be an indicator of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) functioning. The performance of schizophrenic patients in our sample (off medication) was worse than the performance of healthy controls in all variables of the WCST, including perseverative responses (PR) as well as non-perseverative responses (NPR). The rate of perseverative and non-perseverative responses was neither a function of the severity of the illness (measured by SANS/SAPS scales) nor the duration of the disease. Healthy siblings of schizophrenic probands revealed more perseverative responses than healthy controls, but did not show any dif…
When nominal features are marked on verbs: A transcranial magnetic stimulation study
2006
It has been claimed that verb processing (as opposed to noun processing) is subserved by specific neural circuits in the left prefrontal cortex. In this study, we took advantage of the unusual grammatical characteristics of clitic pronouns in Italian (e.g., lo and la in portalo and portala 'bring it [masculine]/[feminine]', respectively)-the fact that clitics have both nominal and verbal characteristics, to explore the neural correlates of verb and clitic processing. We used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to suppress the excitability of the left prefrontal cortex and to assess its role in producing verb+det+noun and verb+clitic phrases. Results showed an interference ef…
Linking planning performance and gray matter density in mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: Moderating effects of age and sex
2012
Abstract Planning of behavior relies on the integrity of the mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (mid-dlPFC). Yet, only indirect evidence exists on the association of protracted maturation of dlPFC and continuing gains in planning performance post adolescence. Here, gray matter density of mid-dlPFC in young, healthy adults (18–32 years) was regressed onto performance on the Tower of London planning task while accounting for moderating effects of age and sex on this interrelation. Multiple regression analysis revealed an association of planning performance and mid-dlPFC gray matter density that was especially strong in late adolescence and early twenties. As expected, for males better plannin…
Influence of cognitive-motor expertise on brain dynamics of anticipatory-based outcome processing.
2019
Motor experience plays an important role in the ability to anticipate action outcomes, but little is known about the brain processes through which it modulates the preparation for unexpected events. To address this issue, EEG was employed while table tennis players and novices observed videos of serves in order to predict the expected ball direction based on the kinematics of a model's movement. Furthermore, we manipulated the congruency between the model's body kinematics and the subsequent ball trajectory while assessing the cerebral cortical activity of novices and experts to understand how experts respond to unexpected outcomes. Experts were more accurate in predicting the ball trajecto…
Eyes open and eyes closed as rest conditions: impact on brain activation patterns
2003
The patterns of associated brain activations during eyes-open and eyes-closed states in complete darkness considerably differ in fMRI. An "interoceptive" state with the eyes closed is characterized by visual cortex activation, while an "exteroceptive" state with the eyes open is characterized by ocular motor system activity. The impact of the chosen rest condition (eyes open or eyes closed in complete darkness) on the pattern of brain activations during visual stimulation was evaluated in 14 healthy volunteers. During fixation or dim light room illumination, the activation of the visual cortex was larger with the eyes-open rest condition than with the eyes-closed rest condition; however, ac…
Neural substrates of the interaction of emotional stimulus processing and motor inhibitory control: an emotional linguistic go/no-go fMRI study.
2007
Neural substrates of behavioral inhibitory control have been probed in a variety of animal model, physiologic, behavioral, and imaging studies, many emphasizing the role of prefrontal circuits. Likewise, the neurocircuitry of emotion has been investigated from a variety of perspectives. Recently, neural mechanisms mediating the interaction of emotion and behavioral regulation have become the focus of intense study. To further define neurocircuitry specifically underlying the interaction between emotional processing and response inhibition, we developed an emotional linguistic go/no-go fMRI paradigm with a factorial block design which joins explicit inhibitory task demand (i.e., go or no-go)…
Correlation of cerebral blood flow and treatment effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in depressed patients.
2002
The aims of this study were to: (1) assess the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on brain activity in depressed patients as measured by single photon emission tomography (SPECT); (2) evaluate the predictive value of brain SPECT on the antidepressant efficacy of rTMS. Patients (n=17) received 1600 rTMS stimuli at a rate of 10 Hz, 5 days per week for 2 weeks to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Whole brain SPECT data were acquired using Tc99m-Bicisate. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was correlated with the % change in the 28-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale Score (Δ-HDRS) and a semiquantitative region of interest (ROI) analysis was conducted. Prio…
Left insular cortex and left SFG underlie prismatic adaptation effects on time perception: Evidence from fMRI
2014
Prismatic adaptation (PA) has been shown to affect left-to-right spatial representations of temporal durations. A leftward aftereffect usually distorts time representation toward an underestimation, while rightward aftereffect usually results in an overestimation of temporal durations. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the neural mechanisms that underlie PA effects on time perception. Additionally, we investigated whether the effect of PA on time is transient or stable and, in the case of stability, which cortical areas are responsible of its maintenance. Functional brain images were acquired while participants (n = 17) performed a time reproduction task an…