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A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examines the role of the temporal pole (TP) and perirhinal cortex (PR) in face recognition and familiar person recognition. The researchers used innovative methods to study these regions in humans and found that the TP is a crucial link between face processing and social networks, while the PR processes all faces encountered. The study also suggests that the TP is involved in social cognition beyond face perception. These findings provide insights into how the brain recognizes familiar faces and connects them with social understanding. The study challenges previous theoretical models of face recognition and highlights the evolutionary significance of face processing areas TP and PR, which are consistent across monkeys and humans. The ability to recognize familiar faces is not unique to humans and has deep evolutionary roots. The study has implications for future computational models of the brain, emphasizing the importance of incorporating social and contextual information for a more comprehensive understanding of face recognition. [Extracted from the article]

This document is an editorial published in Frontiers in Neuroscience titled "Translational applications of neuroimaging." The editorial discusses the limited use of neuroimaging in clinical applications and highlights recent research efforts to bridge the gap between scientific insights and clinical solutions. The editorial features five original studies that explore the use of electroencephalography (EEG) as a tool for diagnosing and prognosing neurological and psychiatric disorders. Other topics covered include the use of neuroimaging for studying brain structure changes, the combination of different imaging techniques, and the potential of real-time interventions. The editorial concludes by identifying promising applications of neuroimaging in the management of various conditions such as chronic pain, epilepsy, stroke, and mental health disorders. [Extracted from the article]

Language influences cognitive and conceptual processing, but the mechanisms through which such causal effects are realized in the human brain remain unknown. Here, we use a brain-constrained deep neural network model of category formation and symbol learning and analyze the emergent model's internal mechanisms at the neural circuit level. In one set of simulations, the network was presented with similar patterns of neural activity indexing instances of objects and actions belonging to the same categories. Biologically realistic Hebbian learning led to the formation of instance-specific neurons distributed across multiple areas of the network, and, in addition, to cell assembly circuits of "shared" neurons responding to all category instances--the network correlates of conceptual categories. In two separate sets of simulations, the network learned the same patterns together with symbols for individual instances ["proper names" (PN)] or symbols related to classes of instances sharing common features ["category terms" (CT)]. Learning CT remarkably increased the number of shared neurons in the network, thereby making category representations more robust while reducing the number of neurons of instance-specific ones. In contrast, proper name learning prevented a substantial reduction of instance-specific neurons and blocked the overgrowth of category general cells. Representational similarity analysis further confirmed that the neural activity patterns of category instances became more similar to each other after category-term learning, relative to both learning with PN and without any symbols. These network-based mechanisms for concepts, PN, and CT explain why and how symbol learning changes object perception and memory, as revealed by experimental studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite decades of research, much is still unknown about the computations carried out in the human face processing network. Recently, deep networks have been proposed as a computational account of human visual processing, but while they provide a good match to neural data throughout visual cortex, they lack interpretability. We introduce a method for interpreting brain activity using a new class of deep generative models, disentangled representation learning models, which learn a low-dimensional latent space that "disentangles" different semantically meaningful dimensions of faces, such as rotation, lighting, or hairstyle, in an unsupervised manner by enforcing statistical independence between dimensions. We find that the majority of our model's learned latent dimensions are interpretable by human raters. Further, these latent dimensions serve as a good encoding model for human fMRI data. We next investigate the representation of different latent dimensions across face-selective voxels. We find that low- and high-level face features are represented in posterior and anterior face-selective regions, respectively, corroborating prior models of human face recognition. Interestingly, though, we find identity-relevant and irrelevant face features across the face processing network. Finally, we provide new insight into the few "entangled" (uninterpretable) dimensions in our model by showing that they match responses in the ventral stream and carry information about facial identity. Disentangled face encoding models provide an exciting alternative to standard "black box" deep learning approaches for modeling and interpreting human brain data. Author summary: We use a class of interpretable deep neural network models, disentangled variational autoencoders (dVAEs), to analyze human fMRI data. We find that a dVAE learns human interpretable dimensions of faces, such as lighting, expression, and hairstyle, and provides as good a match to human fMRI data as matched, non-disentangled models. Our disentangled encoding approach allows us to map different disentangled features to ROI and voxel activity. A decoding analysis confirms that the model separates identity relevant and irrelevant information and reveals that the remaining entangled dimensions contain identity-relevant information. Together these results highlight the use of disentangled models for more interpretable fMRI encoding than standard deep learning models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Here, we demonstrate the first successful use of static neural stimulation patterns for specific information content. These static patterns were derived by a model that was applied to a subject's own hippocampal spatiotemporal neural codes for memory. Approach: We constructed a new model of processes by which the hippocampus encodes specific memory items via spatiotemporal firing of neural ensembles that underlie the successful encoding of targeted content into short-term memory. A memory decoding model (MDM) of hippocampal CA3 and CA1 neural firing was computed which derives a stimulation pattern for CA1 and CA3 neurons to be applied during the encoding (sample) phase of a delayed match-to-sample (DMS) human short-term memory task. Main results: MDM electrical stimulation delivered to the CA1 and CA3 locations in the hippocampus during the sample phase of DMS trials facilitated memory of images from the DMS task during a delayed recognition (DR) task that also included control images that were not from the DMS task. Across all subjects, the stimulated trials exhibited significant changes in performance in 22.4% of patient and category combinations. Changes in performance were a combination of both increased memory performance and decreased memory performance, with increases in performance occurring at almost 2 to 1 relative to decreases in performance. Across patients with impaired memory that received bilateral stimulation, significant changes in over 37.9% of patient and category combinations was seen with the changes in memory performance show a ratio of increased to decreased performance of over 4 to 1. Modification of memory performance was dependent on whether memory function was intact or impaired, and if stimulation was applied bilaterally or unilaterally, with nearly all increase in performance seen in subjects with impaired memory receiving bilateral stimulation. Significance: These results demonstrate that memory encoding in patients with impaired memory function can be facilitated for specific memory content, which offers a stimulation method for a future implantable neural prosthetic to improve human memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable evidence suggests that musical education induces structural and functional neuroplasticity in the brain. This study aimed to explore the potential impact of such changes on word-reading proficiency. We investigated whether musical training promotes the development of uncharted orthographic regions in the right hemisphere leading to better reading abilities. A total of 60 healthy, right-handed culturally matched professional musicians and controls took part in this research. They were categorised as normo-typical readers based on their reading speed (syl/sec) and subdivided into two groups of relatively good and poor readers. High density EEG/ERPs were recorded while participants engaged in a note or letter detection task. Musicians were more fluent in word, non-word and text reading tests, and faster in detecting both notes and words. They also exhibited greater N170 and P300 responses, and target-non target differences for words than controls. Similarly, good readers showed larger N170 and P300 responses than poor readers. Increased reading skills were associated to a bilateral activation of the occipito/temporal cortex, during music and word reading. Source reconstruction also showed a reduced activation of the left fusiform gyrus, and of areas devoted to attentional/ocular shifting in poor vs. good readers, and in controls vs. musicians. Data suggest that music literacy acquired early in time can shape reading circuits by promoting the specialization of a right-sided reading area, whose activity was here associated with enhanced reading proficiency. In conclusion, music literacy induces measurable neuroplastic changes in the left and right OT cortex responsible for improved word reading ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The center‐periphery visual field axis guides early visual system organization with enhanced resources devoted to central vision leading to reduced peripheral performance relative to that of central vision (i.e., behavioral eccentricity effect) for many visual functions. The center‐periphery organization extends to high‐order visual cortex where, for example, the well‐studied face‐sensitive fusiform face area (FFA) shows sensitivity to central vision and the place‐sensitive parahippocampal place area (PPA) shows sensitivity to peripheral vision. As we have recently found that face perception is more sensitive to eccentricity than place perception, here we examined whether these behavioral findings reflect differences in FFA's and PPA's sensitivities to eccentricity. We assumed FFA would show higher sensitivity to eccentricity than PPA would, but that both regions' modulation by eccentricity would be invariant to the viewed category. We parametrically investigated (fMRI, n = 32) how FFA's and PPA's activations are modulated by eccentricity (≤8°) and category (upright/inverted faces/houses) while keeping stimulus size constant. As expected, FFA showed an overall higher sensitivity to eccentricity than PPA. However, both regions' activation modulations by eccentricity were dependent on the viewed category. In FFA, a reduction of activation with growing eccentricity ("BOLD eccentricity effect") was found (with different amplitudes) for all categories. In PPA however, qualitatively different BOLD eccentricity effect modulations were found (e.g., at 8° mild BOLD eccentricity effect for houses but a reverse BOLD eccentricity effect for faces and no modulation for inverted faces). Our results emphasize that peripheral vision investigations are critical to further our understanding of visual processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. It is a high risk for adolescents with first-episode major depressive disorder (MDD) to commit suicide. However, few studies reported the effect of modified electroconvulsive therapy (MECT) in first-episode antipsychotic-naive MDD adolescents. Methods. The study explores the alternations of regional homogeneity of modified electroconvulsive therapy to treat the first-episode antipsychotic-naive major depressive disorder. 72 first-episode MDD patients were recruited from Tianyou Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University of Science and Technology from October 2017 to May 2020, and 65 of 72 completed the trial. Results. Before MECT treatment, ReHo values of the bilateral cerebellum and left cuneus were higher, and ReHo value of left postcentral and supramarginal gyrus was lower in MDD patients compared to healthy subjects (HS). After treatment, the MDD patients have higher ReHo values of the right insula and postcentral gyrus, while left fusiform gyrus were lower than the pretreatment. Compared to the HS, the ReHo values of left lingual gyrus, right calcarine cortex, and right mid occipital thalamus were higher in the posttreatment. In the posttreatment, left calcarine cortex and right cerebrum were lower than in healthy subjects. Conclusions. The study confirmed that MECT improves psychotic symptoms in patients with first-episode antipsychotic-naive MDD. These results further contributed to a more tailored treatment approach to MDD from the pathophysiological and neuroimaging views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicide is the cause of death of approximately 800,000 people a year. Despite the relevance of this behaviour, risk assessment tools rely on clinician experience and subjective ratings. Given that previous suicide attempts are the single strongest predictors of future attempts, we designed a systematic review and coordinate-based meta-analysis to demonstrate whether neuroimaging features can help distinguish individuals who attempted suicide from subjects who did not. Out of 5,659 publications from PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, we summarised 102 experiments and meta-analysed 23 of them. A cluster in the right superior temporal gyrus, a region implicated in emotional processing, might be functionally hyperactive in individuals who attempted suicide. No statistically significant differences in brain morphometry were evidenced. Furthermore, we used JuSpace to show that this cluster is enriched in 5-HT 1A heteroreceptors in the general population. This exploratory meta-analysis provides a putative neural substrate linked to previous suicide attempts. Heterogeneity in the analytical techniques and weak or absent power analysis of the studies included in this review currently limit the applicability of the findings, the replication of which should be prioritised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resting-state connectivity features underlying pure generalized anxiety disorder (GAD, G1) and comorbid GAD and depressive symptoms (G2) have not been directly compared. Furthermore, it is unclear whether these features might serve as potential prognostic biomarkers and change with treatment. Degree centrality (DC) in G1 (40 subjects), G2 (58 subjects), and healthy controls (HCs, 54 subjects) was compared before treatment, and the DC of G1 or G2 at baseline was compared with that after 4 weeks of paroxetine treatment. Using support vector regression (SVR), voxel-wise DC across the entire brain and abnormal DC at baseline were employed to predict treatment response. At baseline, G1 and G2 exhibited lower DC in the left mid-cingulate cortex and vermis IV/V compared to HCs. Additionally, compared to HCs, G1 had lower DC in the left middle temporal gyrus, while G2 showed higher DC in the right inferior temporal/fusiform gyrus. However, there was no significant difference in DC between G1 and G2. The SVR based on abnormal DC at baseline could successfully predict treatment response in responders in G2 or in G1 and G2. Notably, the predictive performance based on abnormal DC at baseline surpassed that based on DC across the entire brain. After treatment, G2 responders showed lower DC in the right medial orbital frontal gyrus, while no change in DC was identified in G1 responders. The G1 and G2 showed common and distinct dysconnectivity patterns and they could potentially serve as prognostic biomarkers. Furthermore, DC in patients with GAD could change with treatment. • The G1 and G2 have common dysconnectivity patterns. • The G1 and G2 have distinct dysconnectivity patterns. • Common and distinctive dysconnectivity patterns could be prognostic biomarkers. • After treatment, G2 showed lower DC in the right medial orbital frontal gyrus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hallmark of plastic and reconstructive surgery is restoring form and function. Historically, tissue procured from healthy portions of a patient's body has been used to fill defects, but this is limited by tissue availability. Human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are stem cells derived from the de-differentiation of mature somatic cells. hiPSCs are of particular interest in plastic surgery as they have the capacity to be re-differentiated into more mature cells, and cultured to grow tissues. This review aims to evaluate the applications of hiPSCs in the plastic surgery context, with a focus on recent advances and limitations. The use of hiPSCs and non-human iPSCs has been researched in the context of skin, nerve, vasculature, skeletal muscle, cartilage, and bone regeneration. hiPSCs offer a future for regenerated autologous skin grafts, flaps comprised of various tissue types, and whole functional units such as the face and limbs. Also, they can be used to model diseases affecting tissues of interest in plastic surgery, such as skin cancers, epidermolysis bullosa, and scleroderma. Tumorigenicity, immunogenicity and pragmatism still pose significant limitations. Further research is required to identify appropriate somatic origin and induction techniques to harness the epigenetic memory of hiPSCs or identify methods to manipulate epigenetic memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study objectives: Primary insomnia (PI) triggers a decline in cognitive function, and the thalamus plays an integral role in this process; however, the mechanisms are unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the altered functional connectivity (FC) of the thalamus in PI patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and to explore the potential neural mechanisms of thalamic involvement in these patients. Methods: This case–control study was conducted in older adults from various communities in Fuzhou, China with a PI diagnosis. These participants underwent neuropsychological assessment and were matched in a 1:2 ratio to the healthy control (HC) group and the PI group according to sex, age, and education level. Resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to explore changes in thalamic FC in PI patients. To further compare changes in thalamic and whole‐brain FC, we further divided the PI group into cognitively normal patients and patients with MCI according to the diagnostic criteria for MCI. The relationship between abnormal FC and cognitive function was investigated. Results: The 28 HCs and 58 participants with PI showed significant differences in Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores (p =.044). In comparison to the HC group, the PI group showed enhanced FC of the occipital thalamus with the left inferior occipital gyrus, right lingual gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, left superior marginal gyrus, left dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus, and right anterior central gyrus. The MoCA total score and the executive function, attention, and abstraction scores of PI patients with MCI (PI–MCI) were worse than those of PI patients without MCI. In comparison to the simple PI group, FC was enhanced in the PI–MCI group between the left occipital thalamus and the middle occipital gyrus, and between the right occipital thalamus and the right superior frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, right superior occipital gyrus, and orbital inferior frontal gyrus. There was a significant negative correlation between the MoCA total score and the enhanced FC between the right occipital thalamus and right superior occipital gyrus (r = −.419, p =.042). Conclusion: The early onset of cognitive impairment in patients with PI is associated with altered FC between the thalamus and the cortex. Enhanced FC between the thalamus and the visual cortex, that is, the superior occipital gyrus, which is involved in attentional processing, may play a role in the early onset of cognitive impairment in insomnia patients. Moreover, due to the fact that PI patients "overdraw" the compensatory capacity of these brain regions earlier, the PI–MCI may fall into the abyss of "decompensation" faster and face more severe cognitive impairments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a novel Binary Object Detection Pattern Model (BODPM) to detect objects with face key points and recognize them using the KERAS dataset. The proximity and accuracy of the recognized items were evaluated using computer vision techniques. The object recognition time interval and duration were recorded and stored permanently in a database, and the information was communicated to the visually impaired user as voice output. The normal face, without wearing a mask, was identified using binary patterns with proximity detection. Camouflaged objects were detected in a maximum probability range of 100%. The proposed method was tested, calculating accuracy and score, and compared with existing models, showcasing remarkable performance. The proposed method of normal and camouflage detection is a novel prediction with proximity analysis of objects in a frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding social interaction requires processing social agents and their relationships. The latest results show that much of this process is visually solved: visual areas can represent multiple people encoding emergent information about their interaction that is not explained by the response to the individuals alone. A neural signature of this process is an increased response in visual areas, to face-to-face (seemingly interacting) people, relative to people presented as unrelated (back-to-back). This effect highlighted a network of visual areas for representing relational information. How is this network organized? Using functional MRI, we measured the brain activity of healthy female and male humans (N = 42), in response to images of two faces or two (head-blurred) bodies, facing toward or away from each other. Taking the facing > non-facing effect as a signature of relation perception, we found that relations between faces and between bodies were coded in distinct areas, mirroring the categorical representation of faces and bodies in the visual cortex. Additional analyses suggest the existence of a third network encoding relations between (nonsocial) objects. Finally, a separate occipitotemporal network showed the generalization of relational information across body, face, and nonsocial object dyads (multivariate pattern classification analysis), revealing shared properties of relations across categories. In sum, beyond single entities, the visual cortex encodes the relations that bind multiple entities into relationships; it does so in a category-selective fashion, thus respecting a general organizing principle of representation in high-level vision. Visual areas encoding visual relational information can reveal the processing of emergent properties of social (and nonsocial) interaction, which trigger inferential processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In this study, we employed a combined electromagnetic recording technique, i.e., electroencephalogram (EEG)/event-related potentials (ERPs) plus standardized weighted low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (swLORETA), to investigate the neural mechanism subserving the orthographic processing of symbols in language and music. While much is known about word processing, the current literature remains inconclusive regarding music reading, as its mechanisms appear to be left lateralized in some cases (as suggested by music-alexia clinical case reports) and either right-sided or bilateral in others, depending on the study and the methodology used. Methods: In this study, 90 right-handed participants with varyingmusical abilities and sexes performed an attentional selection task that involved the recognition of target letters and musical notes, while their EEG signals were recorded from 128 sites. Results: The occipito/temporal N170 component of ERPs (170-210ms) was found strictly left-sided during letter selection and bilateral (with a right-hemispheric tendency) during note selection. Source reconstruction data indicated the preponderant engagement of the right posterior fusiform gyrus (BA19) for processing musical notes. Also involved were other brain regions belonging to the word reading circuit, including the left-sided visual word form area (VWFA) and frontal eye-fields (FEFs). Discussion: This finding provides an explanation for the infrequent appearance of musical alexia cases (previously observed only in patients with left hemispheric lesions). It also suggests how musical literacy could be a rehabilitative and preventive factor for dyslexia, by promoting neuroplasticity and bilaterality in the reading areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we designed a new transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) protocol using a dual-target accelerated transcranial magnetic stimulation (aTMS) for patients with treatment resistant depression (TRD). There are 58 TRD patients were recruited from the Second People's Hospital of Guizhou Province, who were, respectively, received dual-target (real continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) at right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and real repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) at left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)), single-target (sham cTBS at right OFC and real rTMS at left DLPFC), and sham stimulation (sham cTBS at right OFC and sham rTMS at left DLPFC). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) was acquired before and after aTMS treatment to compare characteristics of brain activities by use of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF), fractional low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) and functional connectivity (FC). At the same time, Hamilton Depression Scale-24 (HAMD24) were conducted to assess the effect. HAMD24 scores reduced significantly in dual group comparing to the single and sham group. Dual-target stimulation decreased not only the ALFF values of right fusiform gyrus (FG) and fALFF values of the left superior temporal gyrus (STG), but also the FC between the right FG and the bilateral middle frontal gyrus (MFG), left triangular part of inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Higher fALFF value in left STG at baseline may predict better reaction for bilateral arTMS. Dual-targe stimulation can significantly change resting-state brain activities and help to improve depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Maladaptive functioning of the amygdala has been associated with impaired emotion regulation in affective disorders. Recent advances in real-time fMRI neurofeedback have successfully demonstrated the modulation of amygdala activity in healthy and psychiatric populations. In contrast to an abstract feedback representation applied in standard neurofeedback designs, we proposed a novel neurofeedback paradigm using naturalistic stimuli like human emotional faces as the feedback display where change in the facial expression intensity (from neutral to happy or from fearful to neutral) was coupled with the participant's ongoing bilateral amygdala activity. Methods: The feasibility of this experimental approach was tested on 64 healthy participants who completed a single training session with four neurofeedback runs. Participants were assigned to one of the four experimental groups (n = 16 per group), i.e., happy-up, happy-down, fear-up, fear-down. Depending on the group assignment, they were either instructed to "try to make the face happier" by upregulating (happy-up) or downregulating (happy-down) the amygdala or to "try to make the face less fearful" by upregulating (fear-up) or downregulating (fear-down) the amygdala feedback signal. Results: Linear mixed effect analyses revealed significant amygdala activity changes in the fear condition, specifically in the fear-down group with significant amygdala downregulation in the last two neurofeedback runs as compared to the first run. The happy-up and happy-down groups did not show significant amygdala activity changes over four runs. We did not observe significant improvement in the questionnaire scores and subsequent behavior. Furthermore, task-dependent effective connectivity changes between the amygdala, fusiform face area (FFA), and the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) were examined using dynamic causal modeling. The effective connectivity between FFA and the amygdala was significantly increased in the happy-up group (facilitatory effect) and decreased in the fear-down group. Notably, the amygdala was downregulated through an inhibitory mechanism mediated by mOFC during the first training run. Discussion: In this feasibility study, we intended to address key neurofeedback processes like naturalistic facial stimuli, participant engagement in the task, bidirectional regulation, task congruence, and their influence on learning success. It demonstrated that such a versatile emotional face feedback paradigm can be tailored to target biased emotion processing in affective disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosthechea jauana has been recognized as an orchid species endemic to the Venezuelan tepui. The first record of P. jauana in Brazil is presented here, also from a tepui in the Southern phytogeographical district of Pantepui in the Serra do Aracá, at the northern border of the Amazonas state. A detailed morphological description and images of the specimen are presented, as well as an updated distribution map, preliminary conservation status assessment, and taxonomic notes about the species. In addition, we provide species' distribution models for P. jauana based on current and future bioclimatic data. Future projections suggest that the geographic distribution of P. jauana will likely be severely affected, with ~79% of its suitable habitat being reduced by 2041–2060 and ~92% by 2061–2080. Prosthechea jauana could represent a flag species and an example of how climate change may affect the endemic Pantepui flora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Humans mainly utilize visual and auditory information as a cue to infer others' emotions. Previous neuroimaging studies have shown the neural basis of memory processing based on facial expression, but few studies have examined it based on vocal cues. Thus, we aimed to investigate brain regions associated with emotional judgment based on vocal cues using an N-back task paradigm. Methods: Thirty participants performed N-back tasks requiring them to judge emotion or gender from voices that contained both emotion and gender information. During these tasks, cerebral hemodynamic response was measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Results: The results revealed that during the Emotion 2-back task there was significant activation in the frontal area, including the right precentral and inferior frontal gyri, possibly reflecting the function of an attentional network with auditory top-down processing. In addition, there was significant activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, which is known to be a major part of the working memory center. Discussion: These results suggest that, compared to judging the gender of voice stimuli, when judging emotional information, attention is directed more deeply and demands for higher-order cognition, including working memory, are greater. We have revealed for the first time the specific neural basis for emotional judgments based on vocal cues compared to that for gender judgments based on vocal cues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steel defect detection is important for industry production as it is tied to the product quality and production efficiency. However, previous steel defect detection methods based on deep convolutional neural networks heavily rely on large‐scale data for training and tend to have poor generalization ability for a novel defect category. In this paper, a novel few‐shot steel defect detection model based on multi‐scale semantic enhancement representation and mask category information mapping is introduced, where only a few annotated samples are acquired for the novel defect category. More concretely, three main components are built: an information‐guidance enhanced multi‐head detector is proposed to improve the representation of information in meta‐feature maps, a mask category representation module is designed to enhance the category feature representation of the mask region in the support set, and a novel multi‐scale category edge loss function is designed to assist the generation of category reweighting vector. Extensive experiments on the North‐east University few‐shot steel defect data set demonstrate that the proposed method significantly outperforms the state‐of‐the‐art methods and verify its effectiveness through ablation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, multi-voxel pattern analysis has verified that information can be removed from working memory (WM) via three distinct operations replacement, suppression, or clearing compared to information being maintained (Kim et al., 2020). While univariate analyses and classifier importance maps in Kim et al. (2020) identified brain regions that contribute to these operations, they did not elucidate whether these regions represent the operations similarly or uniquely. Using Leiden-community-detection on a sample of 55 humans (17 male), we identified four brain networks, each of which has a unique configuration of multi-voxel activity patterns by which it represents these WM operations. The visual network (VN) shows similar multi-voxel patterns for maintain and replace, which are highly dissimilar from suppress and clear, suggesting this network differentiates whether an item is held in WM or not. The somatomotor network (SMN) shows a distinct multi-voxel pattern for clear relative to the other operations, indicating the uniqueness of this operation. The default mode network (DMN) has distinct patterns for suppress and clear, but these two operations are more similar to each other than to maintain and replace, a pattern intermediate to that of the VN and SMN. The frontoparietal control network (FPCN) displays distinct multi-voxel patterns for each of the four operations, suggesting that this network likely plays an important role in implementing theseWMoperations. These results indicate that the operations involved in removing information fromWMcan be performed in parallel by distinct brain networks, each of which has a particular configuration by which they represent these operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Schizophrenia is a kind of intractable brain disorder. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been used to rapidly improve the clinical symptoms of patients with schizophrenia, but the effect of ECT on topological attributes of brain functional network in patients with schizophrenia has not been clear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the brain functional network mechanism of ECT against schizophrenia. Methods: Thirty-one patients with schizophrenia and fifty healthy controls matching age, gender, and years of education were included. All participants underwent general data collection and magnetic resonance imaging scanning before ECT, and clinical symptoms were assessed using the Positive And Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). MRI and clinical symptoms were collected again after the first and eighth ECT application. The functional brain network was constructed on the basis of magnetic resonance imaging, and the global and node topological properties were analyzed. Repeated measure variance analysis was used to explore the changes of the topological attribute values and clinical symptom scores before and after ECT, and Bonferroni post hoc analysis was performed. The independent sample t-test was used to compare the differences in the topological attribute values between patients and healthy controls at three time points before and after ECT. Partial correlation analysis was performed for topological attribute values and clinical symptom scores of abnormal brain regions in the patient groups and their changes during ECT. A general linear regression model was used to predict the outcome after the final eighth ECT using the patient's response to the first ECT. Results: (1) One ECT can restore the gamma(γ), lamuda(λ), sigma(σ), nodal global efficiency (Ne) of right insular gyrus ventral agranular insula (INS_R_vIa) and nodal local efficiency (NLe) of bilateral fusiform gyrus medioventral area37 (FuG_A37mv). Eight ECT can also restore the NLe of cortex rostral lingual gyrus (MVOcC _R_rLinG). Eight ECT did not improve the Ne of right superior parietal lobule rostral area 7 (SPL_R_A7r) and NLe of left superior frontal gyrus medial area 6 (SFG_L_A6m). (2) Even after only the first use of ECT, total PANSS scores began to decrease (mean ΔPANSSECT1 was 11.7%; Range, 2%-32.8%), decreased significantly after the eighth application (mean ΔPANSSECT8 was 86.0%; Range,72.5% to 97.9%). Five patients met the response criteria after ECT1 (20% reduction in PANSS total score), and all patients met the response criteria after ECT8. (3) Linear regression analysis showed that ΔPANSSECT1 was a significant predictor of ΔPANSSECT8 (F=5.387, P=0.028), and ΔPANSSECT1 explained 15.7% of the variance of ΔPANSSECT8 (R2=0.157). Conclusions: ECT was able to normalize γ, λ, σ, Ne of INS_R_vIa, NLe of bilateral FuG_A37mv in SZ patients after the first treatment, and NLe of MVOcC_R_rLinG after the eighth ECT. ECT significantly alleviates psychotic symptoms in patients with SZ, and its efficacy after eight sessions can be predicted by the patient's response to the first session of ECT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional differences in synaptic degeneration may underlie differences in clinical presentation and neuropathological disease progression in Parkinson's Disease (PD) and Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Here, we mapped and quantified synaptic degeneration in cortical brain regions in PD, PD with dementia (PDD) and DLB, and assessed whether regional differences in synaptic loss are linked to axonal degeneration and neuropathological burden. We included a total of 47 brain donors, 9 PD, 12 PDD, 6 DLB and 20 non-neurological controls. Synaptophysin+ and SV2A+ puncta were quantified in eight cortical regions using a high throughput microscopy approach. Neurofilament light chain (NfL) immunoreactivity, Lewy body (LB) density, phosphorylated-tau and amyloid-β load were also quantified. Group differences in synaptic density, and associations with neuropathological markers and Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scores, were investigated using linear mixed models. We found significantly decreased synaptophysin and SV2A densities in the cortex of PD, PDD and DLB cases compared to controls. Specifically, synaptic density was decreased in cortical regions affected at Braak α-synuclein stage 5 in PD (middle temporal gyrus, anterior cingulate and insula), and was additionally decreased in cortical regions affected at Braak α-synuclein stage 4 in PDD and DLB compared to controls (entorhinal cortex, parahippocampal gyrus and fusiform gyrus). Synaptic loss associated with higher NfL immunoreactivity and LB density. Global synaptophysin loss associated with longer disease duration and higher CDR scores. Synaptic neurodegeneration occurred in temporal, cingulate and insular cortices in PD, as well as in parahippocampal regions in PDD and DLB. In addition, synaptic loss was linked to axonal damage and severe α-synuclein burden. These results, together with the association between synaptic loss and disease progression and cognitive impairment, indicate that regional synaptic loss may underlie clinical differences between PD and PDD/DLB. Our results might provide useful information for the interpretation of synaptic biomarkers in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way our brain processes personal familiarity is still debatable. We used searchlight multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to identify areas where local fMRI patterns could contribute to familiarity detection for both faces and name categories. Significantly, we identified cortical areas in frontal, temporal, cingulate, and insular areas, where it is possible to accurately cross-classify familiar stimuli from one category using a classifier trained with the stimulus from the other (i.e., abstract familiarity) based on local fMRI patterns. We also discovered several areas in the fusiform gyrus, frontal, and temporal regions—primarily lateralized to the right hemisphere—supporting the classification of familiar faces but failing to do so for names. Also, responses to familiar names (compared to unfamiliar names) consistently showed less activation strength than responses to familiar faces (compared to unfamiliar faces). The results evinced a set of abstract familiarity areas (independent of the stimulus type) and regions specifically related only to face familiarity, contributing to recognizing familiar individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between liver dysfunction and dementia has been researched extensively but remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigate the longitudinal and cross‐sectional associations between liver function and liver diseases and risk of incident dementia, impaired cognition, and brain structure abnormalities using Cox proportion hazard model and linear regression model. 431 699 participants with a mean of 8.65 (standard deviation [SD] 2.61) years of follow‐up were included from the UK Biobank; 5542 all‐cause dementia (ACD), 2427 Alzheimer's disease (AD), and 1282 vascular dementia (VaD) cases were documented. We observed that per SD decreases in alanine transaminase (ALT; hazard ratio [HR], 0.917; PFDR <0.001) and per SD increases in aspartate aminotransferase (AST; HR, 1.048; PFDR = 0.010), AST to ALT ratio (HR, 1.195; PFDR <0.001), gamma‐glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT; HR, 1.066; PFDR <0.001), alcoholic liver disease (ALD; HR, 2.872; PFDR <0.001), and fibrosis and cirrhosis of liver (HR, 2.285; PFDR = 0.002), being significantly associated with a higher risk of incident ACD. Restricted cubic spline models identified a strong U‐shaped association between Alb and AST and incident ACD (Pnonlinear <0.05). Worse cognition was positively correlated with AST, AST to ALT ratio, direct bilirubin (DBil), and GGT; negatively correlated with ALT, Alb, and total bilirubin (TBil); and ALD and fibrosis and cirrhosis of liver (PFDR <0.05). Moreover, changes in ALT, GGT, AST to ALT ratio, and ALD were significantly associated with altered cortical and subcortical regions, including hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, pallidum, and fusiform (PFDR <0.05). In sensitivity analysis, metabolic dysfunction‐associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) was associated with the risk of ACD and brain subcortical changes. Our findings provide substantial evidence that liver dysfunction may be an important factor for incident dementia. Early intervention in the unhealthy liver may help prevent cognitive impairment and dementia incidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the therapeutical advancements in the surgical treatment of primary intra-axial neoplasms, which determined both a significative improvement in OS and QoL and a reduction in the incidence of surgery-induced major neurological deficits, nowadays patients continue to manifest subtle post-operative neurocognitive impairments, preventing them from a full reintegration back into social life and into the workforce. The birth of connectomics paved the way for a profound reappraisal of the traditional conception of brain architecture, in favour of a model based on large-scale structural and functional interactions of a complex mosaic of cortical areas organized in a fluid network interconnected by subcortical bundles. Thanks to these advancements, neurosurgery is facing a new era of connectome-based resections, in which the core principle is still represented by the achievement of an ideal onco-functional balance, but with a closer eye on whole-brain circuitry, which constitutes the foundations of both major neurological functions, to be intended as motricity; language and visuospatial function; and higher-order cognitive functions such as cognition, conation, emotion and adaptive behaviour. Indeed, the achievement of an ideal balance between the radicality of tumoral resection and the preservation, as far as possible, of the integrity of local and global brain networks stands as a mandatory goal to be fulfilled to allow patients to resume their previous life and to make neurosurgery tailored and gentler to their individual needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social anxiety (SA) has been linked to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, but the neurobiopsychological mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. This study aimed to elucidate the neurofunctional markers for COVID-induced SA development and the potential role of COVID-related posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in the brain-SA alterations link. Before the COVID-19 pandemic (T1), 100 general college students underwent resting-state magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral tests. During the period of community-level outbreaks (T2), these students were re-contacted to undergo follow-up behavioral assessments. Whole-brain correlation and prediction analyses found that pre-pandemic spontaneous neural activity (measured by fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations) in the right fusiform gyrus (FG) was positively correlated to SA alterations (T2 - T1). Mediation analyses revealed that COVID-specific PTSS mediated the effects of right FG on SA alterations. The results should be interpreted carefully because only one-session neuroimaging data in a sample of normal adults were included. The results provide evidence for neurofunctional markers of COVID-induced SA and may help develop targeted brain-based interventions that reduce SA. • COVID-related PTSS prospectively predicted SA alterations during the pandemic. • fALFF in the right FG prospectively predicted SA alterations during the pandemic. • COVID-related PTSS mediated the linkage of right FG fALFF to SA alterations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ventral temporal cortex supports visual processing of important categories, such as faces and words. A predominant theory is that the development of word-selective cortex during the onset of reading instruction pushes face-selective responses to the right hemisphere. Recent longitudinal measurements suggest that word-selective cortex is recycling cortical territory dedicated to processing limbs or tools rather than faces. Future work should aim to link development measured with fMRI to the visual environment and behavior. High-level visual areas in ventral temporal cortex (VTC) support recognition of important categories, such as faces and words. Word-selective regions are left lateralized and emerge at the onset of reading instruction. Face-selective regions are right lateralized and have been documented in infancy. Prevailing theories suggest that face-selective regions become right lateralized due to competition with word-selective regions in the left hemisphere. However, recent longitudinal studies examining face- and word-selective responses in childhood do not provide support for this theory. Instead, there is evidence that word representations recycle cortex previously involved in processing other stimuli, such as limbs. These findings call for more longitudinal investigations of cortical recycling and a new era of work that links visual experience and behavior with neural responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by memory and functional impairments. Two of 3 patients with AD are biologically female; therefore, the biological underpinnings of this diagnosis disparity may inform interventions slowing the AD progression. To bridge this gap, we conducted analyses of 1078 male and female participants from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative to examine associations between levels of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF)/neuroimaging biomarkers and cognitive/functional outcomes. The Chow test was used to quantify sex differences by determining if biological sex affects relationships between the studied biomarkers and outcomes. Multiple magnetic resonance imaging (whole brain, entorhinal cortex, middle temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, hippocampus), position emission tomography (AV45), and CSF (P-TAU, TAU) biomarkers were differentially associated with cognitive and functional outcomes. Post-hoc bootstrapped and association analyses confirmed these differential effects and emphasized the necessity of using separate, sex-stratified models. The studied imaging/CSF biomarkers may account for some of the sex-based variation in AD pathophysiology. The identified sex-varying relationships between CSF/imaging biomarkers and cognitive/functional outcomes warrant future biological investigation in independent cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Several brain regions were identified from WM tasks-related fMRI studies concerning acute SD by using ALE meta-analysis. • The abnormal FC of these brain regions correlated with aspects of WM task performance of acute SD subjects. • The altered FC of working memory network might be the underlying mechanisms of impaired WM after acute SD. Acute sleep deprivation (SD) has a detrimental effect on working memory (WM). However, prior functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have failed to reach consistent results on brain functions underlying WM decline after acute SD. Thus, we aimed to identify convergent patterns of abnormal brain functions due to WM decline after acute SD. A coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of task-state fMRI studies testing the effects of acute SD on WM was performed to construct WM network. Then 26 healthy subjects with regular sleep performed the n-back task and underwent resting-state fMRI scanning before and after 24 h of SD. The functional connectivity (FC) among these brain regions and correlations with WM performance were calculated. The ALE results displayed that SD subjects performing WM-related tasks had consistent hypoactivation in the occipital lobe, left middle occipital gyrus, parietal lobe, precuneus, inferior parietal lobule, right sub-gyral, right cuneus, right limbic lobe, and right posterior cingulate. Consistent hyperactivation was showed in the left cerebrum, including the lingual gyrus, posterior lobe, cuneus, temporal lobe, and fusiform gyrus. These identified brain regions as the seeds to construct WM network. The increased FC between the left declive and right sub-gyral, left cuneus and left lingual gyrus, and left cuneus and right post cingulate were found. Furthermore, the impaired WM performance negatively correlated with increased FC. Taken together, our findings highlight that the altered FC in WM network may be the underlying mechanisms of WM decline after acute SD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To explore the regions of aberrant spontaneous brain activity in asthma patients and their potential impacts using the Percent amplitude of fluctuation (PerAF) analysis method. Patients and methods: In this study, a total of 31 bronchial asthma (BA) patients were ultimately included, comprising 17 males and 14 females. Subsequently, 31 healthy control subjects (HCS) were recruited, consisting of 17 males and 14 females, and they were matched with the BA group based on age, sex, and educational status. The PerAF analysis technique was employed to study the differences in spontaneous brain activity between the two groups. The SPM12 toolkit was used to carry out a two sample t-test on the collected fMRI data, in order to examine the differences in PerAF values between the asthma patients and the healthy controls. We employed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scale and the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) to evaluate the cognitive and emotional states of the two groups. Pearson correlation analysis was utilized to ascertain the relationship between changes in the PerAF values within specific brain regions and cognitive as well as emotional conditions. Results: Compared with the healthy control group, areas of the brain with reduced PerAF in asthma patients included the inferior cerebellum, fusiform gyrus, right inferior orbital frontal gyrus, left middle orbital frontal gyrus, left/right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), dorsal lateral superior frontal gyrus (SFGdl), left superior temporal gyrus (STG), precuneus, right inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and left/right angular gyrus. BA patients exhibit mild cognitive impairments and a propensity for emotional disturbances. Furthermore, the perAF values of the SFGdl region are significantly positively correlated with the results of the MoCA cognitive assessment, while negatively correlated with the HAMD evaluation. Conclusion: Through the application of PerAF analysis methods, we discovered that several brain regions in asthma patients that control the amplitude of respiration, vision, memory, language, attention, and emotional control display abnormal changes in intrinsic brain activity. This helps characterize the neural mechanisms behind cognitive, sensory, and motor function impairments in asthma patients, providing valuable insights for potential therapeutic targets and disease management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a neural network model that estimates the rotation angle of unknown objects from RGB images using an approach inspired by biological neural circuits. The proposed model embeds the understanding of rotational transformations into its architecture, in a way inspired by how rotation is represented in the ellipsoid body of Drosophila. To effectively capture the cyclic nature of rotation, the network’s latent space is structured in a circular manner. The rotation operator acts as a shift in the circular latent space’s units, establishing a direct correspondence between shifts in the latent space and angular rotations of the object in the world space. Our model accurately estimates the difference in rotation between two views of an object, even for categories of objects that it has never seen before. In addition, our model outperforms three state-of-the-art convolutional networks commonly used as the backbone for vision-based-models in robotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subthreshold social anxiety (SSA) is a condition in which individuals experience social anxiety that does not reach the threshold required for a clinical diagnosis of a social anxiety disorder (SAD). Although SSA may not impair lives as severely as SAD, it can affect social functioning. However, only a few studies focused on structural neural correlates of SSA. We recruited 65 individuals with SSA and used the Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale to assess their social and performance anxiety levels and other relevant measures of social anxiety. Voxel-wise whole-brain correlational analyses showed a positive association between the cortical thickness (CT) of the superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and social anxiety levels and a negative correlation between the CT of the fusiform gyrus (FG) and performance anxiety levels in individuals with SSA. Exploratory Pearson's correlation analyses showed significant positive correlations between the CT of the SFG and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 total scores and negative associations between the CT of the FG and Beck Anxiety Inventory total scores. Our study provides insight into the neural basis of SSA, particularly performance anxiety, by highlighting the association between CT in specific brain regions and SSA characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhythm and motor function are intrinsically linked to each other and to music, but the rhythm-motor interplay during music training, and the corresponding brain mechanisms, are underexplored. In a longitudinal training study with children, we examined the role of rhythm predisposition in the fine motor improvements arising from music training, and which brain regions would be implicated. Fifty-seven 8-year-olds were assigned to either a 6-month music training (n = 21), sports training (n = 18), or a control group (n = 18). They performed rhythm and motor tasks, and structural brain scans before and after training were collected. Better ability to perceive rhythm before training was related to less gray matter volume in regions of the cerebellum, fusiform gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, ventral diencephalon, amygdala, and inferior/middle temporal gyri. Music training improved motor performance, and greater improvements correlated with better pre-training rhythm discrimination. Music training also induced a loss of gray matter volume in the left cerebellum and fusiform gyrus, and volume loss correlated with higher motor gains. No such effects were found in the sports and control groups. In summary, children with finer-tuned rhythm perception abilities were prone to finer motor improvements through music training, and this rhythm-motor link was to some extent subserved by the left cerebellum and fusiform gyrus. These findings have implications for models on music-related plasticity and rhythm cognition, and for programs targeting motor function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-Commerce is Trending Nowadays, Post Covid era has opened up new business opportunities In this Era people are looking for convenience and ease, hence there is an immense hype in food industry. It's a stage where food is been delivered at your doorstep in 30 minutes using some applications. Our hectic day and reckless life have pushed us to follow this trend. Online food delivery system is been a helpful to the society as it provides fresh food at the doorstep of the customer, giving various payment options, cash back offers. The present Indian market is captured with popular players such as Food panda, Swiggy, Zomato etc. India is witnessing the tremendous growth of restaurant industry after the advent of technological development in restaurant industry. This research is an attempt to find out problems faced by delivery executives and giving solutions to the industry to make food delivery more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognizing the emotions of faces in a crowd is crucial for understanding overall behavior and intention as well as for smooth and friendly social interactions. However, it is unclear whether the spatial frequency of faces affects the discrimination of crowd emotion. Although high- and low-spatial-frequency information for individual faces is processed by distinct neural channels, there is a lack of evidence on how this applies to crowd faces. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate neural representations of crowd faces at different spatial frequencies. Thirty-three participants were asked to compare whether a test face was happy or more fearful than a crowd face that varied in high, low, and broad spatial frequencies. Our findings revealed that fearful faces with low spatial frequencies were easier to recognize in terms of accuracy (78.9%) and response time (927 ms). Brain regions, such as the fusiform gyrus, located in the ventral visual stream, were preferentially activated in high spatial frequency crowds, which, however, were the most difficult to recognize behaviorally (68.9%). Finally, the right inferior frontal gyrus was found to be better activated in the broad spatial frequency crowds. Our study suggests that people are more sensitive to fearful crowd faces with low spatial frequency and that high spatial frequency does not promote crowd face recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple cortical (planum temporale, supramarginal gyrus, fusiform gyrus) and subcortical (caudate, putamen, and thalamus) regions have shown different functional lateralization patterns for skilled vs. dyslexic readers. The extent to which skilled and dyslexic adult readers show differential structural lateralization remains to be seen. Method: Participants included 72 adults (N = 41 skilled; N = 31 dyslexic) who underwent a high-resolution MRI brain scan. The grey matter volume of the cortical and subcortical structures was extracted. Results: While there were clear behavioral differences between the groups, there were no differences in any of the isolated structures (i.e., either total size or asymmetry index) and limited evidence for any brain–behavior relationships. We did find a significant cortical–cortical relationship (p = 0.006) and a subcortical–subcortical relationship (p = 0.008), but not cross-over relationships. Overall, this work provides unique information on neural structures as they relate to reading in skilled and dyslexic readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mifepristone led to no significant change in emotional processing brain activity. • Task reaction times and accuracy were similar in both mifepristone and placebo. • Mifepristone reduced cerebral blood flow in insula and amygdala. The Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis plays an important role in the pathophysiology of mood disorders, and preliminary data suggests that glucocorticoid receptor (GR) antagonism may be an important therapeutic mechanism. The effects of modulating HPA axis function on emotional processing related brain activity, which may be abnormal in depressed mood, is poorly understood. This study used a pharmacological functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design to determine the effects of the GR and progesterone receptor antagonist mifepristone on emotional faces processing task related brain activations in 19 right-handed healthy male participants. Each participant received 600 mg mifepristone or placebo on two separate imaging days and then performed an emotional processing fMRI task four hours later. The effect of mifepristone on task related brain activations was determined using Region-of-Interest (ROI) analyses and an exploratory whole brain voxel-wise analyses. No significant changes were observed in the defined ROIs (amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, insula) or in the exploratory whole brain analyses that was associated with mifepristone administration in either the angry vs happy faces or angry and happy faces vs implicit baseline contrasts. Task reaction times and accuracy were similar in both mifepristone and placebo conditions (all p > 0.05). Our study failed to show significant evidence of modulation of emotional processing related brain activity associated with acute mifepristone administration. Future research should use fMRI to investigate the longer-term administration effects of mifepristone on mood in healthy participants and people with mood disorders to provide a deeper understanding of the potential effects on depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the challenging problem of counting objects or entities in an image without relying on specific category information, known as class-agnostic counting (CAC). While CAC is an innovative solution, it faces difficulties due to intra-class diversity, which is influenced by variations in shape, color, and scale. To overcome this challenge, the paper proposes two modules: the Feature Augmentation Module (FAM) and the Similarity Comparison Module (SCM). FAM enhances the feature representation by generating additional samples based on input examples, thereby increasing the number of samples in the feature space. SCM dynamically evaluates the self-similarity of instances and emphasizes core patterns to make the features more robust against intra-class variations. The model is guided to focus on regions of the query image that are similar to the exemplar image, ensuring clear differentiation between different items. Experimental results on various benchmarks and training environments demonstrate the exceptional performance of the proposed approach, outperforming current state-of-the-art techniques by a substantial margin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) is considered an age‐related degenerative neurological disorder and the most common risk factor for vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). The amplitude of fluctuation of low frequency (ALFF) can detect altered intrinsic brain activity in CSVD. This study explored the static and dynamic ALFFs in the early stage of CSVD with (CSVD‐M) or without (CSVD‐W) mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in these patients and how these changes contribute to cognitive deterioration. Methods: Thirty consecutive CSVD cases and 18 healthy controls (HC) were included in this study. All the participants underwent a 3D magnetization‐prepared rapid gradient‐echo (MPRAGE) sequence to obtain structural T1‐weighted images. Simultaneous multislice imaging 5(SMS5) was used for resting‐state functional MRI (rs‐fMRI), and Data Processing and Analysis of Brain Imaging software helped determine static ALFF (sALFF). The dynamic ALFF (dALFF) was calculated using the sliding window method of DynamicBC software. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and two‐sample t‐test were used to evaluate the sALFF and temporal variability of dALFF among the three groups. The subjects were rated on a broad standard neuropsychological scale. Partial correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between sALFF and dALFF variability and cognition (Bonferroni correction, statistical threshold set at p <.05). Results: Compared with HCs, the CSVD‐M group indicated decreased sALFF values in the bilateral cerebellum posterior lobe (CPL) and the left inferior Parietal Lobule (IPL), with increased sALFF values in the right SFG. For dALFF analysis, the CSVD‐W group had significant dALFF variability in the right fusiform gyrus compared with HC. Moreover, the postcentral gyrus (PoCG) was significantly high in the CSVD‐W group. While in the CSVD‐M group, the bilateral paracentral lobules (PL) revealed significantly elevated dALFF variability and low dALFF variability in the left CPL and right IPL compared with HCs. The CSVD‐M group had high dALFF variability in the bilateral PL but low dALFF variability in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and right PoCG compared with the CSVD‐W group. The partial correlation analysis indicated that dALFF variability in the left MTG was positively associated with EM (r = 0.713, p =.002) in CSVD‐W and CSVD‐M groups. In the groups with CSVD‐M and HC, altered dALFF variability in the bilateral PL was negatively correlated with EM (r = −0.560, p =.002). Conclusion: There were significant changes in sALFF and dALFF variability in CSVD patients. Abnormal spontaneous static and dynamic ALFFs may provide new insights into cognitive dysfunction in CSVD with MCI and may be valuable biomarkers for early diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even prior to producing their first words, infants are developing a sophisticated speech processing system, with robust word recognition present by 4–6 months of age. These emergent linguistic skills, observed with behavioural investigations, are likely to rely on increasingly sophisticated neural underpinnings. The infant brain is known to robustly track the speech envelope, however previous cortical tracking studies were unable to demonstrate the presence of phonetic feature encoding. Here we utilise temporal response functions computed from electrophysiological responses to nursery rhymes to investigate the cortical encoding of phonetic features in a longitudinal cohort of infants when aged 4, 7 and 11 months, as well as adults. The analyses reveal an increasingly detailed and acoustically invariant phonetic encoding emerging over the first year of life, providing neurophysiological evidence that the pre-verbal human cortex learns phonetic categories. By contrast, we found no credible evidence for age-related increases in cortical tracking of the acoustic spectrogram. To understand speech, our brains have to learn the different types of sounds that constitute words, including syllables, stress patterns and smaller sound elements, such as phonetic categories. Here, the authors provide evidence that at 7 months, the infant brain learns reliably to detect invariant phonetic categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most common distinctions in long-term memory is that between semantic (i.e., general world knowledge) and episodic (i.e., recollection of contextually specific events from one's past). However, emerging cognitive neuroscience data suggest a surprisingly large overlap between the neural correlates of semantic and episodic memory. Moreover, personal semantic memories (i.e., knowledge about the self and one's life) have been studied little and do not easily fit into the standard semantic-episodic dichotomy. Here, we used fMRI to record brain activity while 48 participants verified statements concerning general facts, autobiographical facts, repeated events, and unique events. In multivariate analysis, all four types of memory involved activity within a common network bilaterally (e.g., frontal pole, paracingulate gyrus, medial frontal cortex, middle/superior temporal gyrus, precuneus, posterior cingulate, angular gyrus) and some areas of the medial temporal lobe. Yet the four memory types differentially engaged this network, increasing in activity from general to autobiographical facts, from autobiographical facts to repeated events, and from repeated to unique events. Our data are compatible with a component process model, in which declarative memory types rely on different weightings of the same elementary processes, such as perceptual imagery, spatial features, and self-reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Face perception in humans and nonhuman primates is accomplished by a patchwork of specialized cortical regions. How these regions develop has remained controversial. In sighted individuals, facial information is primarily conveyed via the visual modality. Early blind individuals, on the other hand, can recognize shapes using auditory and tactile cues. Here we demonstrate that such individuals can learn to distinguish faces from houses and other shapes by using a sensory substitution device (SSD) presenting schematic faces as sound-encoded stimuli in the auditory modality. Using functional MRI, we then asked whether a face-selective brain region like the fusiform face area (FFA) shows selectivity for faces in the same subjects, and indeed, we found evidence for preferential activation of the left FFA by sound-encoded faces. These results imply that FFA development does not depend on experience with visual faces per se but may instead depend on exposure to the geometry of facial configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies on brain connectivity correlates of autism have often focused on selective connections and yielded inconsistent results. By applying global fiber tracking and utilizing a within-twin pair design, we aimed to contribute to a more unbiased picture of white matter connectivity in association with clinical autism and autistic traits. Eighty-seven twin pairs (n = 174; 55% monozygotic; 24 with clinical autism) underwent diffusion tensor imaging. Linear regressions assessed within-twin pair associations between structural brain connectivity of anatomically defined brain regions and both clinical autism and autistic traits. These were explicitly adjusted for IQ, other neurodevelopmental/psychiatric conditions and multiple testing, and implicitly for biological sex, age, and all genetic and environmental factors shared by twins. Both clinical autism and autistic traits were associated with reductions in structural connectivity. Twins fulfilling diagnostic criteria for clinical autism had decreased brainstem-cuneus connectivity compared to their co-twins without clinical autism. Further, twins with higher autistic traits had decreased connectivity of the left hippocampus with the left fusiform and parahippocampal areas. These associations were also significant in dizygotic twins alone. Reduced brainstem-cuneus connectivity might point towards alterations in low-level visual processing in clinical autism while higher autistic traits seemed to be more associated with reduced connectivity in networks involving the hippocampus and the fusiform gyrus, crucial especially for processing of faces and other (higher order) visual processing. The observed associations were likely influenced by both genes and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Conduct disorder (CD) involves a group of behavioral and emotional problems that usually begins during childhood or adolescence. Structural brain alterations have been observed in CD, including the amygdala, insula, ventrolateral and medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and fusiform gyrus. The current study developed a multivariate generalized linear model (GLM) to differentiate adolescents with CD from typically developing (TD) adolescents in terms of grey matter volume (GMV). Methods: The whole‐brain structural MRI data were collected from 96 adolescents with CD (mean age = 16.188 ± 1.259 years; mean IQ = 104.292 ± 8.107 ; 63 males) and 90 TD individuals (mean age = 15.956 ± 1.506 years; mean IQ = 106.622 ± 9.076 ; 59 males) matched on age, IQ, and sex. Region-wise GMV was extracted following whole-brain parcellation into 68 cortical and 14 subcortical regions for each participant. A multivariate GLM was developed to predict the GMV of the pre-hypothesized regions-of-interest (ROIs) based on CD diagnosis, with intracranial volume, age, sex, and IQ serving as the covariate. Results: A diagnosis of CD was a significant predictor for GMV in the right pars orbitalis, right insula, right superior temporal gyrus, left fusiform gyrus, and left amygdala (F(1, 180) = 5.460–10.317, p < 0.05, partial eta squared = 0.029–0.054). The CD participants had smaller GMV in these regions than the TD participants (MCD–MTD = [− 614.898] mm3–[− 53.461] mm3). Conclusions: Altered GMV within specific regions may serve as a biomarker for the development of CD in adolescents. Clinical work can potentially target these biomarkers to treat adolescents with CD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speech processing requires extracting meaning from acoustic patterns using a set of intermediate representations based on a dynamic segmentation of the speech stream. Using whole brain mapping obtained in fMRI, we investigate the locus of cortical phonemic processing not only for single phonemes but also for short combinations made of diphones and triphones. We find that phonemic processing areas are much larger than previously described: they include not only the classical areas in the dorsal superior temporal gyrus but also a larger region in the lateral temporal cortex where diphone features are best represented. These identified phonemic regions overlap with the lexical retrieval region, but we show that short word retrieval is not sufficient to explain the observed responses to diphones. Behavioral studies have shown that phonemic processing and lexical retrieval are intertwined. Here, we also have identified candidate regions within the speech cortical network where this joint processing occurs. The neural dynamics underlying speech comprehension are not well understood. Here, the authors show that phonemic-to-lexical processing is localized to a large region of the temporal cortex, and that segmentation of the speech stream occurs mostly at the level of diphones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Normal tension glaucoma (NTG) is considered a neurodegenerative disease with glaucomatous damage extending to diffuse brain areas. Therefore, this study aims to explore the abnormalities in the NTG structural network to help in the early diagnosis and course evaluation of NTG. Methods: The structural networks of 46 NTG patients and 19 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were constructed using diffusion tensor imaging, followed by graph theory analysis and correlation analysis of small-world properties with glaucoma clinical indicators. In addition, the network-based statistical analysis (NBS) method was used to compare structural network connectivity differences between NTG patients and healthy controls. Results: Structural brain networks in both NTG and NC groups exhibited small-world properties. However, the small-world index in the severe NTG group was reduced and correlated with a mean deviation of the visual field (MDVF) and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness. When compared to healthy controls, degree centrality and nodal efficiency in visual brain areas were significantly decreased, and betweenness centrality and nodal local efficiency in both visual and nonvisual brain areas were also significantly altered in NTG patients (all p < 0.05, FDR corrected). Furthermore, NTG patients exhibited increased structural connectivity in the occipitotemporal area, with the left fusiform gyrus (FFG.L) as the hub (p < 0.05). Conclusions: NTG exhibited altered global properties and local properties of visual and cognitive-emotional brain areas, with enhanced structural connections within the occipitotemporal area. Moreover, the disrupted small-world properties of white matter might be imaging biomarkers for assessing NTG progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congenital cleft lip and palate is one of the common deformities in the craniomaxillofacial region. The current study aimed to explore the perceptual pattern of cleft-related speech produced by Mandarin-speaking patients with repaired cleft palate using the task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (task-fMRI) technique. Three blocks of speech stimuli, including hypernasal speech, the glottal stop, and typical speech, were played to 30 typical adult listeners with no history of cleft palate speech exploration. Using a randomized block design paradigm, the participants were instructed to assess the intelligibility of the stimuli. Simultaneously, fMRI data were collected. Brain activation was compared among the three types of speech stimuli. Results revealed that greater blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses to the cleft-related glottal stop than to typical speech were localized in the right fusiform gyrus and the left inferior occipital gyrus. The regions responding to the contrast between the glottal stop and cleft-related hypernasal speech were located in the right fusiform gyrus. More significant BOLD responses to hypernasal speech than to the glottal stop were localized in the left orbital part of the inferior frontal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus. More significant BOLD responses to typical speech than to the glottal stop were localized in the left inferior temporal gyrus, left superior temporal gyrus, left medial superior frontal gyrus, and right angular gyrus. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between hypernasal speech and typical speech. In conclusion, the typical listener would initiate different neural processes to perceive cleft-related speech. Our findings lay a foundation for exploring the perceptual pattern of patients with repaired cleft palate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: Changes in the topological properties of brain functional network nodes during childhood and adolescence can provide more detailed and intuitive information on the rules of brain development. This study aims to explore the characteristics of nodal attributes in child and adolescent brain functional networks and analyze the correlation between nodal attributes in different brain regions and age. Methods: Forty‐two healthy volunteers aged 6‐18 years who were right‐handed primary and middle school students were recruited, and the subgroup analysis included children (6‐12 years, n = 19) and adolescents (13‐18 years, n = 23). Resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected using a 3.0 Tesla MRI scanner. The topological properties of the functional brain network were analyzed using graph theory. Results: Compared with the children group, the degree centrality and nodal efficiency of multiple brain regions in the adolescent group were significantly increased, and the nodal shortest path was reduced (q<0.05, false discovery rate corrected). These brain regions were widely distributed in the whole brain and significantly correlated with age. Compared with the children group, reduced degree centralities were observed in the left dorsolateral fusiform gyrus, left rostral cuneus gyrus, and right medial superior occipital gyrus. Conclusion: The transmission efficiency of the brain's core network gradually increased, and the subnetwork function gradually improved in children and adolescents with age. The functional development of each brain area in the occipital visual cortex was uneven and there was functional differentiation within the occipital visual cortex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]