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The current study will focus on cerebellar involvement in sensory gating (SG). Sensory gating refers to the brain’s ability to filter out irrelevant sensory input from the external environment, which is crucial for optimal cognitive functioning. Various brain areas are involved with SG, showing the complex multi-regional network involved in SG, with some indications pointing to a left hemisphere predominance. While often overlooked, the cerebellum may play a vital role within this network, as some studies observed cerebellar activation during SG. Therefore, the current study theorizes that the dysregulation of cerebellar output could potentially disrupt SG in higher cortical regions. To investigate this theory, the current research will use cerebellar transcranial alternating current stimulation (CB-tACS), a non-invasive brain stimulation technique, which can modulate the brain’s excitability using exogenous oscillatory field potentials. The current study will investigate the effects of CB-tACS on SG using a single-blind, sham-controlled, within-subjects design.

In cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) children and adolescents with conduct problems learn social problem-solving skills that enable them to behave in more independent and situation appropriate ways. Empirical studies on psychological functions show that the effectiveness of CBT may be further improved by putting more emphasis on (1) recognition of the type of social situations that are problematic, (2) recognition of facial expressions in view of initiating social problem-solving, (3) effortful emotion regulation and emotion awareness, (4) behavioral inhibition and working memory, (5) interpretation of the social problem, (6) affective empathy, (7) generation of appropriate solutions, (8) outcome expectations and moral beliefs, and (9) decision-making. To improve effectiveness, CBT could be tailored to the individual child's or adolescent's impairments of these psychological functions which may depend on the type of conduct problems and their associated problems.

The importance of the cerebellum in basic as well as higher order domains of affect processing in the brain has been vividly elaborated and specified by the contributions collected in this book. Indeed, according to increasingly precise research findings in functional neuroimaging and functional neurophysiology, individually delineable areas of the cerebellum play a role in virtually all process levels of the responsible networks of emotion perception, attribution, and experience via a variety of reciprocal connections to the limbic system and distinct areas of the parietal, temporal, and prefrontal cortex. The works in this book identify alternative perspectives in neuroscience research that offer new directions in future investigations. Important aspects will be to pin down the precise cerebellar processes in multiple sensory integration and allocation in cognitive and affective evaluation, and also cognitive-affective as well as motor behavioral responses. In this context, imaging and electrophysiological techniques will highlight the spatial and temporal, and thus the topographic and topological, specificities of the cerebellar areas to the respective networks. In the final chapter, questions and suggestions for future neuroscientific investigations are identified, from whose developments several fields of neurological and psychological disciplines could benefit in order to open up therapeutic avenues for people with cerebellar disorders.

Neuropsychological and experimental brain research have provided independent lines of evidence in support of cerebellar involvement in disorders of emotion. Medial cerebellar structures and their connections to the limbic system are involved in visceral aspects and the generation of emotions, whereas the posterolateral cerebello-thalamo-cortical loops are implicated in emotion regulation and subjective sense of control. Disturbances within these cerebellar-centred circuits are proposed to underlie homeostatic dysregulation and suboptimal predictive coding that provide a transdiagnostic mechanism by which the cerebellum may contribute to the vulnerability and persistence of mental disorders.

Neuropsychological and experimental brain research have provided independent lines of evidence in support of cerebellar involvement in disorders of emotion. Medial cerebellar structures and their connections to the limbic system are involved in visceral aspects and the generation of emotions, whereas the posterolateral cerebello-thalamo-cortical loops are implicated in emotion regulation and subjective sense of control. Disturbances within these cerebellar-centred circuits are proposed to underlie homeostatic dysregulation and suboptimal predictive coding that provide a transdiagnostic mechanism by which the cerebellum may contribute to the vulnerability and persistence of mental disorders.

The cerebellum is well known for its contribution to motor performance, but less for its involvement to cognitive and affective processing. The growing interest of clinical and neuroscientific research has resulted in a fascinating focus on the cerebellar mechanisms of emotion. Advances in functional neuroimaging and noninvasive stimulation protocols have successively delineated circumscribed cerebellar areas with its functional and topographic connections to the conventionally predominating cerebral cortex in basic as well as high order emotion processing. This encompasses all information processing stages which include perception and attention, and the evaluation and integration of emotion cues to the trajectories in motor, cognitive, and affective behavior. Not surprisingly, research has identified the cerebellum being part of the brain's network associated with art, morality, and social cognition. This book will provide an overview of the details of these intriguing issues, supporting a contemporary understanding of the fundamental as well as specific features of cerebellar functions within emotion processes.

The importance of the cerebellum in basic as well as higher order domains of affect processing in the brain has been vividly elaborated and specified by the contributions collected in this book. Indeed, according to increasingly precise research findings in functional neuroimaging and functional neurophysiology, individually delineable areas of the cerebellum play a role in virtually all process levels of the responsible networks of emotion perception, attribution, and experience via a variety of reciprocal connections to the limbic system and distinct areas of the parietal, temporal, and prefrontal cortex. The works in this book identify alternative perspectives in neuroscience research that offer new directions in future investigations. Important aspects will be to pin down the precise cerebellar processes in multiple sensory integration and allocation in cognitive and affective evaluation, and also cognitive-affective as well as motor behavioral responses. In this context, imaging and electrophysiological techniques will highlight the spatial and temporal, and thus the topographic and topological, specificities of the cerebellar areas to the respective networks. In the final chapter, questions and suggestions for future neuroscientific investigations are identified, from whose developments several fields of neurological and psychological disciplines could benefit in order to open up therapeutic avenues for people with cerebellar disorders.

The cerebellum is well known for its contribution to motor performance, but less for its involvement to cognitive and affective processing. The growing interest of clinical and neuroscientific research has resulted in a fascinating focus on the cerebellar mechanisms of emotion. Advances in functional neuroimaging and noninvasive stimulation protocols have successively delineated circumscribed cerebellar areas with its functional and topographic connections to the conventionally predominating cerebral cortex in basic as well as high order emotion processing. This encompasses all information processing stages which include perception and attention, and the evaluation and integration of emotion cues to the trajectories in motor, cognitive, and affective behavior. Not surprisingly, research has identified the cerebellum being part of the brain's network associated with art, morality, and social cognition. This book will provide an overview of the details of these intriguing issues, supporting a contemporary understanding of the fundamental as well as specific features of cerebellar functions within emotion processes.

Contains fulltext : 251269.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Behavioral studies have shown that humans account for inertial acceleration in their decisions of hand choice when reaching during body motion. Physiologically, it is unclear at what stage of movement preparation information about body motion is integrated with the process of hand selection. Here, we addressed this question by applying transcranial magnetic stimulation over left motor cortex (M1) of human participants who performed a preferential reach task while they were sinusoidally translated on a linear motion platform. If M1 only represents a read-out of the final hand choice, we expect the body motion not to affect the motor-evoked potential (MEP) amplitude. If body motion biases the hand selection process before target onset, we expect corticospinal excitability to be influenced by the phase of the motion, with larger MEP amplitudes for phases that show a bias to using the right hand. Behavioral results replicate our earlier findings of a sinusoidal modulation of hand choice bias with motion phase. MEP amplitudes also show a sinusoidal modulation with motion phase, suggesting that body motion influences corticospinal excitability, which may ultimately reflect changes of hand preference. The modulation being present before target onset suggests that competition between hands is represented throughout the corticospinal tract. Its phase relationship with the motion profile indicates that other processes after target onset take up time until the hand selection process has been completely resolved, and the reach is initiated.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Full body-motion biases decisions of hand choice. We examined the signatures of this bias in hand preference in corticospinal excitability before a reach target was presented. Our results show that behavior and corticospinal excitability modulate depending on the state of the body in motion. This suggests that information about body motion penetrates deeply within the motor system. 9 p.

The longstanding idea that the cerebral cortex is the main neural correlate of human cognition can be elaborated by comparative analyses along the vertebrate phylogenetic tree that support the view that the cerebello-cerebral system is suited to support non-motor functions more generally. In humans, diverse accounts have illustrated cerebellar involvement in cognitive functions. Although the neocortex, and its transmodal association cortices such as the prefrontal cortex, have become disproportionately large over primate evolution specifically, human neocortical volume does not appear to be exceptional relative to the variability within primates. Rather, several lines of evidence indicate that the exceptional volumetric increase of the lateral cerebellum in conjunction with its connectivity with the cerebral cortical system may be linked to non-motor functions and mental operation in primates. This idea is supported by diverging cerebello-cerebral adaptations that potentially coevolve with cognitive abilities across other vertebrates such as dolphins, parrots, and elephants. Modular adaptations upon the vertebrate cerebello-cerebral system may thus help better understand the neuroevolutionary trajectory of the primate brain and its relation to cognition in humans. Lateral cerebellar lobules crura I-II and their reciprocal connections to the cerebral cortical association areas appear to have substantially expanded in great apes, and humans. This, along with the notable increase in the ventral portions of the dentate nucleus and a shift to increased relative prefrontal-cerebellar connectivity, suggests that modular cerebellar adaptations support cognitive functions in humans. In sum, we show how comparative neuroscience provides new avenues to broaden our understanding of cerebellar and cerebello-cerebral functions in the context of cognition.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is particularly relevant for children from 7 years on and adolescents with clinical levels of conduct problems. CBT provides these children and adolescents with anger regulation and social problem-solving skills that enable them to behave in more independent and situation appropriate ways. Typically, CBT is combined with another psychological treatment such as behavioral parent training in childhood or an intervention targeting multiple systems in adolescence. The effectiveness of CBT, however, is in the small to medium range. The aim of this review is to describe how the effectiveness of CBT may be improved by paying more attention to a series of psychological functions that have been shown to be impaired in neuroimaging studies: (1) anger recognition, (2) the ability to generate situation appropriate solutions to social problems, (3) reinforcement-based decision making, (4) response inhibition, and (5) affective empathy. It is suggested that children and adolescents first become familiar with these psychological functions during group CBT sessions. In individual sessions in which the parents (and/or child care workers in day treatment and residential treatment) and the child or adolescent participate, parents then learn to elicit, support, and reinforce their child’s use of these psychological functions in everyday life (in vivo practice). In these individual sessions, working on the psychological functions is tailored to the individual child’s characteristic impairments of these functions. CBT therapists may also share crucial social-learning topics with teachers with a view to creating learning opportunities for children and adolescents at school.

Contains fulltext : 183817.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has become a common method to study the interrelations between the brain and language functioning. This meta-analysis examined the efficacy of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and direct current stimulation (tDCS) in the study of language production in healthy volunteers. Forty-five effect sizes from 30 studies which investigated the effects of NIBS on picture naming or verbal fluency in healthy participants were meta-analysed. Further sub-analyses investigated potential influences of stimulation type, control, target site, task, online vs. offline application, and current density of the target electrode. Random effects modelling showed a small, but reliable effect of NIBS on language production. Subsequent analyses indicated larger weighted mean effect sizes for TMS as compared to tDCS studies. No statistical differences for the other sub-analyses were observed. We conclude that NIBS is a useful method for neuroscientific studies on language production in healthy volunteers. 13 p.

ObjectivePrevious language production studies targeting the inferior frontal and superior temporal gyrus using anodal tDCS have provided mixed results. Part of this heterogeneity may be explained by limited target region focality of conventionally used electrode montages. We examined the focality of conventionally and alternative electrode montages.MethodsElectrical field distributions of anodal tDCS targeting IFG and pSTG were simulated in conventional setups (anodal electrode over IFG/pSTG, reference electrode over right supraorbital region) and an alternative electrode montage in four different brains.ResultsConventional montages showed maximum field strengths outside of the target regions. Results from alternative electrode montages showed that focality of tDCS could be improved by adjustments in electrode size and placement.ConclusionsHeterogeneity of findings of language production studies deploying conventional tDCS montages may in part be explained by diffuse electrical field distributions. Alternative montages may improve focality and provide more unequivocal results.SignificanceReliability of tDCS in language production research, both in basic and applied fields, can be improved by adopting different electrode montages which target the region of interest in a more direct way.

Contains fulltext : 175357.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Prior research has shown that the ratio between resting-state theta (4-7 Hz)-beta (13-30 Hz) oscillations in the electroencephalogram (EEG) is associated with reward- and punishment-related feedback learning and risky decision making. However, it remains unclear whether the theta/beta EEG ratio is also an electrophysiological index for poorer behavioral adaptation when reward and punishment contingencies change over time. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether resting-state theta (4-7 Hz)-beta (13-30 Hz) EEG ratio correlated with reversal learning. A 4-min resting-state EEG was recorded and a gambling task with changing reward-punishment contingencies was administered in 128 healthy volunteers. Results showed an inverse relationship between theta/beta EEG ratio and reversal learning. Our findings replicate and extend previous findings by showing that higher midfrontal theta/beta EEG ratios are associated with poorer reversal learning and behavioral adaptive responses under changing environmental demands. 10 p.

Contains fulltext : 129952.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Background: Psychopathic offenders inevitably violate interpersonal norms and frequently resort to aggressive and criminal behaviour. The affective and cognitive deficits underlying these behaviours have been linked to abnormalities in functional interhemispheric connectivity. However, direct neurophysiological evidence for dysfunctional connectivity in psychopathic offenders is lacking. Methods: We used transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with electroencephalography to examine interhemispheric connectivity in the dorsolateral and motor cortex in a sample of psychopathic offenders and healthy controls. We also measured intracortical inhibition and facilitation over the left and right motor cortex to investigate the effects of local cortical processes on interhemispheric connectivity. Results: We enrolled 17 psychopathic offenders and 14 controls in our study. Global abnormalities in right to left functional connectivity were observed in psychopathic offenders compared with controls. Furthermore, in contrast to controls, psychopathic offenders showed increased intracortical inhibition in the right, but not the left, hemisphere. Limitations: The relatively small sample size limited the sensitivity to show that the abnormalities in interhemispheric connectivity were specifically related to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in psychopathic offenders. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this study provides the first neurophysiological evidence for abnormal interhemispheric connectivity in psychopathic offenders and may further our understanding of the disruptive antisocial behaviour of these offenders. 9 p.

Threat demands fast and adaptive reactions that are manifested at the physiological, behavioral, and phenomenological level and are responsive to the direction of threat and its severity for the individual. Here, we investigated the effects of threat directed toward or away from the observer on motor corticospinal excitability and explicit recognition. Sixteen healthy right-handed volunteers completed a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) task and a separate three-alternative forced-choice emotion recognition task. Single-pulse TMS to the left primary motor cortex was applied to measure motor evoked potentials from the right abductor pollicis brevis in response to dynamic angry, fearful, and neutral bodily expressions with blurred faces directed toward or away from the observer. Results showed that motor corticospinal excitability increased independent of direction of anger compared with fear and neutral. In contrast, anger was better recognized when directed toward the observer compared with when directed away from the observer, while the opposite pattern was found for fear. The present results provide evidence for the differential effects of threat direction on explicit recognition and motor corticospinal excitability. In the face of threat, motor corticospinal excitability increases independently of the direction of anger, indicative of the importance of more automatic reactions to threat.

Functional neuroimaging studies in adults show that aggression involves reduced brain communication between subcortical and cortical areas dedicated to motivation and control, respectively. Prior research indicates that sex steroid hormone production during adolescence negatively influences the rapid development of white matter connectivity between subcortical and cortical areas during adolescence and may potentiate aggression. Here, we tested this hypothesis in 258 participants between 8 and 25 years of age by using Diffusion Weighted Imaging to examine the microstructure of white matter connections within the fronto-temporal-subcortical network. Trait aggression was measured using the Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire and testosterone and estradiol levels were measured in saliva. Results indicated that higher levels of testosterone were associated with less white matter integrity within the fronto-temporal-subcortical network (i.e., higher mean diffusivity [MD] longitudinal [LD], and radial diffusivity [RD]). Furthermore, lower fractional anisotropy and higher MD, LD, and RD values within this network increased expressive forms of aggression and reduced inhibited forms of aggression (hostility). Our study indicates higher levels of testosterone relating to lower quality of structural cortical-subcortical connectivity, arguably resulting in a shift from inhibited towards expressive forms of aggression. Our data adds evidence to the idea that aggressive tendencies are subcortically driven, but individuals with relatively high testosterone might have lower structural connectivity within cortical control areas, resulting in a stronger tendency to act on these aggressive tendencies. Hum Brain Mapp 36:1043-1052, 2015.

Contains fulltext : 143349.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Objectives: Prior research suggests that dampening neural activity of the intact, presumably overactive hemisphere, combined with increasing neural activity in the damaged hemisphere, might restore cortical interhemispheric balance and reduce neglect. In the present study we repeatedly applied a relatively new technique, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), to the posterior parietal cortex to modulate spontaneous neural activity levels in a polarity dependent fashion to find evidence for improvements in severe hemispatial neglect in chronic patients. Methods: Eighty-nine patients were initially identified from our databases as having neglect, after thoroughly screening databases, consulting medical practitioners and baseline testing, only five met our inclusion criteria and agreed to participate. Sixty-five patients were excluded as they did not meet safety criteria for tDCS (epilepsy, metal implants), suffered from other medical conditions (i.e., heart disease, epilepsy, current psychiatric disorder) or displayed only mild neglect at baseline testing. Five patients with severe chronic hemispatial neglect were enrolled in a double-blind, placebo-controlled treatment program. TDCS or placebo was applied for 20 minutes over the left (cathodal) and right (anodal) posterior parietal cortex at an intensity of 2 mA on five consecutive days. Treatment conditions were separated by a four week wash-out period. Baseline corrected change in performance on the conventional subtests of the Behavioral Inattention Test (BIT) was our primary endpoint. Results: No treatment-related effects were observed for the BIT change scores and performance on individual subtests. Moreover, patients' performance somewhat improved only during the stimulation period (day one vs day five, irrespective of whether it was placebo or tDCS), but not thirty days later, indicating a practice effect. Discussion: The present study does not provide evidence that tDCS to the posterior parietal cortex improves chronic hemispatial neglect. As a result of in- and exclusion health and safety criteria the majority of patients were excluded, which indicates that performing large randomized controlled trials is not feasible in chronic neglect patients. 10 p.